Molefe's Gupta lesson - don't offer people SA Finance Minister job, you'll end up in Saudi Arabia

25 May 2016 - 18:52 By Roxanne Henderson

Some South Africans may be content with being known as the nation that hounded a wealthy family out of its country and closed their bank accounts‚ but Eskom CEO Brian Molefe is not.In an interview with EyeWitness News on Wednesday‚ Molefe disapproved of the manner in which the Gupta family had been treated in recent months. He said that a tendency to “colour people in a particular colour‚ very quickly‚ without getting facts”‚ was unfair‚ referring to the family's recent misfortunes. Molefe was responding to a question on whether he might consider the post of finance minister‚ after recent media reports suggested that he may be up for the top job.Molefe said he would not answer the question but offered some advice to those who believed that particular job was theirs to offer.“If you were [to offer me the job]‚ I was going to warn you and tell you that the last time somebody did something like that they were hounded out of the country and their bank accounts were closed ... So I would counsel you not to involve yourself in those matters‚” he said‚ before breaking into a hearty chuckle.“You'll end up somewhere in Saudi Arabia‚ or somewhere there in the Middle East‚ because South Africans don't like that job being offered to people all the time‚” he continued.Molefe then commended finance minister Pravin Gordhan for his “excellent work in making sure that [SA's credit] ratings are maintained”.Molefe said that he wants to continue in his position at Eskom for the next few years...

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