Speaking about the safety of retirement funds, Gordhan said South Africans had to be vigilant and watch every step Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba took.
Jonas implored South Africans to guard all institutions.
"Until recently we have been saying that the Treasury is on the right track, the Reserve Bank is on the right track, and StatsSA and the [Independent] Electoral Commission. But that is not static ... all institutions are under attack. We must defend all institutions, even those we think are not captured," said Jonas.
If institutions such as StatsSA were captured they would produce information that reinforced a particular agenda, he said.
Gordhan said top of the list to be captured was the Treasury, followed by the Financial Intelligence Centre and the Reserve Bank.
"We must ask the public protector: 'Since when did you become an expert on macroeconomic policy?'."
He was referring to Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane's call for a change in the mandate of the Reserve Bank.
"Apart from visiting the Presidency, which economist advised [her] on what [she] said about the necessity to change the mandate of the Reserve Bank?
"That wasn't just a so-called 'honest mistake' - that was part of a conspiracy and we need to know more about where this economist came from."
Gordhan tells Cyril to send Zuma packing
Former finance minister stops being 'diplomatic'
Former finance minister Pravin Gordhan has called on Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa to sack President Jacob Zuma.
"The Ramaphosa team must take over in December and in January must tell Zuma to go and live in Nkandla," Gordhan said on Thursday.
It is the first time he has publicly called for Zuma to be sacked.
He also took a swipe at the president's administration and backers.
Speaking as a member of a panel at the Morningstar South Africa Investment Conference in Cape Town with his former deputy, Mcebisi Jonas, and Bloomberg journalist Arabile Gumede, Gordhan said: "What you have at the moment is a group of people who are willing to do anything in order ... to loot the state."
He said the looters did not care about the consequences for the country, their constituencies or the 30-million South Africans living in poverty as long as they could get what they wanted.
Speaking about the safety of retirement funds, Gordhan said South Africans had to be vigilant and watch every step Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba took.
Jonas implored South Africans to guard all institutions.
"Until recently we have been saying that the Treasury is on the right track, the Reserve Bank is on the right track, and StatsSA and the [Independent] Electoral Commission. But that is not static ... all institutions are under attack. We must defend all institutions, even those we think are not captured," said Jonas.
If institutions such as StatsSA were captured they would produce information that reinforced a particular agenda, he said.
Gordhan said top of the list to be captured was the Treasury, followed by the Financial Intelligence Centre and the Reserve Bank.
"We must ask the public protector: 'Since when did you become an expert on macroeconomic policy?'."
He was referring to Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane's call for a change in the mandate of the Reserve Bank.
"Apart from visiting the Presidency, which economist advised [her] on what [she] said about the necessity to change the mandate of the Reserve Bank?
"That wasn't just a so-called 'honest mistake' - that was part of a conspiracy and we need to know more about where this economist came from."
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