The Ahmed Kathrada Foundation has again thrown its weight behind embattled State Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan.
This comes amid calls in certain quarters for action against Gordhan following the earlier than expected return to load shedding.
The group this week endorsed a statement by a group of African National Congress (ANC) veterans supporting Gordhan and expressed dismay at the attacks leveled at the Minister.
The foundation’s executive director Neeshan Balton says their support for Gordhan is consistent with the ethics that he holds in the fight against corruption.
“ There is a need to focus on the big issue of State Capture rather than to be sidetracked by the particular function of Eskom, or where the minister should and shouldn’t be,” expresses Balton.
WATCH | Ahmed Kathrada Foundation backs embattled Pravin Gordhan
The Ahmed Kathrada Foundation also called on President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC not to relent to threats by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) to disrupt next month’s State of the Nation Address if Gordhan remains in office.
The support for Gordhan comes as the Minister will this weekend present the African National Congress (ANC) National Executive Committee with a detailed report on the progress made in dealing with the challenges faced by state-owned enterprises. The NEC is holdings it’s meeting in Irene, Pretoria.
Meanwhile, the ANC has denied that it’ll be discussing the future of Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan at its current NEC meeting Pretoria.
ANC spokesperson, Pule Mabe says SOEs are indeed being discussed.
“The National Executive Committee has never sat and discussed individual deployees, we don’t do that. It is the prerogative of the President to deploy members of the executive. We have got full confidence in all our comrades we deploy that serve in the NEC. We still believe in their ability to implement our resolutions as of the elective conference. All that is happening here including a report from comrade Pravin on the work they do to turn the situation around,” expresses Mabe.
ANC-alliance partner the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is among those calling for Gordhan’s resignation following the load shedding that took place before January 13th.
