Zuma fired Gordhan because he was ‘disrespectful’
Image: ALON SKUY
President Jacob Zuma told ANC top brass on Tuesday that the main reason he fired Pravin Gordhan was because the former finance minister “disrespected” him and his cabinet ministers, was difficult to work with and treated people like children.
This is the argument Zuma presented to a heated ANC national working committee meeting as he defended himself against a charge by his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa, that the “intelligence report” the president used to fire Gordhan was dubious.
Several of the ANC leaders who attended the meeting, held in Luthuli House’s 11th floor boardroom, said the atmosphere in the room became highly charged when Ramaphosa restated his unhappiness with Gordhan’s axing.
He repeated remarks he had made in public to the effect that Zuma’s reliance on an “intelligence report” — claiming that Gordhan had planned to meet people who wanted to overthrow the government — had reminded him of his own 2001 ordeal.
In 2001, an “intelligence report” emerged alleging that Ramaphosa and other ANC luminaries — Tokyo Sexwale and Mathews Phosa — were plotting to oust then president Thabo Mbeki through illegal means. The report was later shown to be false.
One of the NWC members who spoke to the Sunday Times this week on condition of anonymity said Ramaphosa had taken the matter “deeply personally” and it was clear in the room that there were still divisions over Gordhan’s axing.
It was at this point that Zuma and his allies, who dominated the meeting, changed tack — downplaying the “intelligence report” and focusing on the president’s relationship with the former minister.
“On Comrade Pravin they were saying: ‘Leave this intelligence thing. This man has been disrespecting the president. How can we allow this?’ Everyone was agreeing because we know how Pravin is. People were saying ja. Because he treats people badly,” said an insider in the meeting who also declined to be named as only the party’s secretary-general is allowed to speak on the record about such meetings.
Zuma told the meeting that he had felt “disrespected” by the former minister ever since he reappointed him to the post in December 2015.
The president said he was “undermined” and accused Gordhan of never acting on the mandate given to him.
The president and his allies in the meeting further accused Gordhan of being “difficult to work with” and claimed that he treated fellow ministers as if he was their superior.
These accusations were then used to justify Gordhan’s axing, with some saying the president could not be forced to work with someone he no longer had a good relationship with.
In a statement issued a day after the meeting, the NWC said: “The NWC has accepted the irretrievable breakdown of the relationship between the president and a member of his cabinet as sufficient explanation for the decision taken by the president.
“The issue of the intelligence report complicated the matter, creating a lot of unhappiness. This was consequently presented as the only reason for his removal which was unfortunate and incorrect.”
Ramaphosa, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe and treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize were on the back foot for much of the meeting as Zuma’s supporters were angry at them for public statements they had made challenging the cabinet reshuffle.
On the night of the reshuffle, Mantashe was the first to speak out against Zuma’s changes. He was followed by Ramaphosa, and then Mkhize less than a day later. The three accused Zuma of not consulting them as senior party leaders before announcing the changes, saying this showed that his list of new ministers had been drafted “somewhere else” and that the ANC was no longer the political centre of power.
But by the time the NWC meeting was over, five days later, they had been forced to concede that they had “made a mistake” by speaking out publicly about their misgivings.
Zuma emerged from the meeting unscathed, with the NWC merely reminding him that consulting other leaders on deployments was a party principle and not a favour he was doing the others.
That this was the outcome of the meeting should not have been a surprise — Zuma has long since ensured that the NWC and the much larger national executive committee are dominated by people loyal to him.
But just to be sure that he did not lose the debate, he disarmed his opponents in the NWC by opening the meeting with an apology for not consulting colleagues about the reshuffle.
As soon as he finished speaking, his supporters in the meeting said the “mistake” was understandable.
“There were many people that were saying they were all at fault for not consulting. It is not only the president. Even DD [Mabuza] and them were saying. Everyone is guilty of not properly consulting especially with the alliance,” said an insider.
Mabuza, who is party chairman in Mpumalanga and provincial premier, was among those who were adamant at the meeting that Zuma would stay on as party leader until the end of his term in December.
Over and above their loyalty to Zuma, Mabuza and other provincial ANC leaders are said to have a personal interest in ensuring that he is not ousted.
As one NWC member opined, had they allowed him to be ousted because of the reshuffle, nothing would have stood in the way of those who want to see them removed as premiers in their own provinces.
Although Zuma supporters had gone to the meeting with the aim of humiliating Ramaphosa, Mkhize and Mantashe by forcing them to publicly apologise, they ended up conceding to a compromise position: the trio acknowledged “the mistake” without actually issuing public apologies.
It was a telling moment at the subsequent press conference when Mantashe said: “The point we are making is that we find it adult enough to close a door‚ beat each other up and‚ if you find me with a blue eye‚ I can develop a narrative that I bumped against a pole or something‚ rather than the leaders of the ANC going public with their disagreements.”
By the time the meeting turned to address the matter of the upcoming motion of no confidence in parliament, it was a given that ANC MPs would never vote with opposition parties.
To be safe, however, the meeting decided officials of the ANC would be instructed to address the ANC caucus before the vote on April 18.