South Africa names Pravin Gordhan finance minister

The appointment of Van Rooyen, a largely unknown MP, has caused jitters at the market, sending the South African rand plummeting to record lows of 16 to the USA dollar and the fallout of the South African financial market.

Political analyst Professor Susan Booysen says: “He is more accomplished than his four-day predecessor”. “I’m relatively familiar with the terrain we have to work with and its challenges”, Gordhan said yesterday at a press conference – after the ministry’s spokeswoman had introduced him, mistakenly, as Nene.

In between came David van Rooyen, a little-known backbencher with no central government experience whose period in charge of the purse strings of Africa’s most sophisticated economy lasted less than 100 hours.

Apparently stung by this reaction, Mr Zuma abruptly removed Mr van Rooyen and appointed Pravin Gordhan yesterday as the third finance minister in five days. Gordhan’s reinstatement was as a result “the importance of listening to the people”, South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma said.

The country has had three finance ministers in a week, its currency has lost 25% against the dollar so far this year, and the stock market is plunging.

While the Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane hopes new Gordhan will stand up to President Zuma and ensure fiscal discipline, he is still reeling in shock over the economic suicide of last week.

The president, who has four wives, issued an official statement rebutting rumours that he and Myeni were having an affair and had a child together. Insiders are reported to have confirmed Nene’s shuffle out of finance was due to an urgent restructuring deal in the South African Airways-Airbus deal. Gordhan’s appointment gave a boost to the market.

Calls for Zuma’s removal have been circulating on social media in the wake of Nene’s sacking and more than one march is being organised in support of these calls.

With a previous stint in Cabinet, Gordhan was reappointed finance minister on Sunday, following the dismissal of former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene, which evoked a massive public outcry.

“The fact that abrupt decisions can be made without any reason and without any consultation, it will take a lot more to restore genuine confidence in South Africa”, said Nicky Weimar, an economist at Nedbank Ltd., which has assets under management of 233 billion rand ($15.4 billion), including government bonds.

He sought to calm the fears that have gripped the nation regarding investments. Former South African health minister and leading anti-apartheid activist Barbara Hogan was the first on Friday to call for Zuma’s resignation.

“It’s going to take many years to regain trust even if the best case scenario would be for Zuma to be recalled as president immediately”.

Gordhan promised to uphold South Africa’s spending ceiling, reform failing state-owned enterprises and protect the country’s credit rating.