Gordhan guns for Myeni after 'looting' allegations

Former finance minister Pravin Gordhan will be consulting his lawyers about allegations made by the outgoing South African Airways (SAA) chairperson Dudu Myeni.

The standoff stems from comments Myeni made in an interview with news channel ANN7 last week. During the interview‚ Myeni was asked to list the companies that have been looting SAA. She mentioned Bidvest‚ a company in which Gordhan is known to have shares. Myeni then challenged journalists to find out whether a minister has interests in the company.

"I can give you the names of the companies‚ it is the job of anyone who wants to write - journalists who are not lazy to do proper research - to say‚ who is Bidvest and who is part of Bidvest? Is there a minister somewhere? Is there anyone who is linked to Bidvest?" said Myeni.

Gordhan‚ who did not want to comment extensively on Myeni's allegations‚ said: "I will take the matter to my lawyers to look at."

Bidvest was not immediately available to comment.

Asked about her relationship with Gordhan during his tenure as minister of finance‚ Myeni described it as "a tough one".

"The treatment I got was like that of a young girl from a community somewhere who knew nothing about what I was doing‚ yet I had facts. I would sit down with him and share with him about the performance of the airline and what the views were in terms of what could actually take the company from where it was to a better place‚ in fact‚ back to its glory‚" Myeni said.