Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has condemned the Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF) charges against him and his daughter.
He says he is also seeking legal advice over the party’s allegation that he refused to answer Parliamentary questions put to him. Earlier on Tuesday the EFF laid charges against Gordhan at the Brooklyn police station in Pretoria, in response to charges he laid against leader Julius Malema and his deputy Floyd Shivambu.
The EFF says it had given Gordhan time to answer to questions relating to an unlawful foreign bank account in Canada as well as his participation in the formation of the SARS rogue unit
The EFF says it has presented evidence to the police, however Gordhans spokesperson Adrian Lackay say the allegations are false and part of a campaign to defame the Minister further.
“These are not Parliamentary questions, they want the minister to answer to them and to them exclusively and we are obtaining sound legal advice whether there is in fact an obligation to do so and to actually legitimise and be part of a broader public campaign that they have run for the better part of the last month to target Minister Gordhan. What we seen today in Brooklyn is just an extension and a mutation of a public campaign that absolutely has no facts as basis. So for an example they can look as hard as they like for an account in Canada in the name of the Minister of Public Enterprises they will not find it because it doesn’t exist,” says Lackay.
Meanwhile, EFF national spokesperson, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi says before they laid the charges they did write to Gordhan to request answers to the allegations against him but received no response.
“Majority of the corruption that we are speaking about in relation to the Guptas happened until Zuma fired him and then he started speaking which means his conscious is opportunistic. We wrote 34 if I’m not mistaken, questions through the Parliamentary process to Pravin, he had 10 days to answer, that 10 days passed he didn’t answer. The questions of the bank account, the questions of the tenders in relation to Anisha. Over two weeks ago already have you seen Pravin Gordhan in a police station to lay charges against the Guptas? Against the corruption that he says he witnessed? and he runs to lay charges against the opposition political party that is asking him questions,” says Ndlozi.
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