South Africa’s Gordhan dismisses fraud charge as “frivolous”
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Charges
Cape Town, Oct. 14, 2016 (Reuters/NAN) South African Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan, on Friday dismissed fraud charges levelled against him and described it as “frivolous”.
Gordhan said that he would carry on with his job, including delivering an interim budget at the end of the month.
He also said the economy was bottoming out and had every chance of expanding by more than 1 per cent in 2017.
“The fraud charges have fueled suspicions of a political plot to oust Gordhan, a highly respected finance minister who defied allies of President Jacob Zuma in their quest for lucrative state contracts,’’ analysts said.
Gordhan described the charges as “political mischief”.
He said he would continue his work in trying to convince ratings agencies not to downgrade South Africa to sub-investment grade at the beginning of December.
The charges caused fresh turmoil in South Africa’s financial markets this week, sending the rand more than 3 per cent lower on Tuesday.
However, the currency recovered some of those losses the next day when the state prosecutor said he might be open to reviewing the charges if asked.
Gordhan said his lawyers would be issuing a statement in that regard later on Friday.
Despite the charges, Zuma has continued to express his support for Gordhan. (Reuters/NAN)
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Edited by Damilola Oyewole and Abdullahi Yusuf