UDM leader Bantu Holomisa wants President Cyril Ramaphosa to take action against Minister Pravin Gordhan after his ‘dramatic’ meeting with Parliament’s Public Enterprises Committee, reports TimesLIVE.

Gordhan appeared before the committee on Wednesday to present documents relating to the sale of 51% of SAA to Takatso consortium as a preferred strategic partner.

The Minister requested the meeting be held in camera. Holomisa, in a letter to Ramaphosa, accused Gordhan of having ‘something to hide' in the SAA deal after requesting committee members to sign a non-disclosure agreement before documents were presented.

‘Minister Gordhan continues to play delaying tactics in the entire matter. What is, however, most shocking is that the Minister in essence wants to muzzle a Parliamentary committee. Why have a meeting with the Minister in camera and worse still want to have a parliamentary committee sign a non-disclosure agreement,’ Holomisa said.

Holomisa asked Ramaphosa to fire Gordhan, claiming the Minister ‘made a mess’ of the SAA deal. The share sale started in June 2021 and Takatso was expected to invest more than R3bn over three years. 

DA MP Farhat Essack, a member of the committee, earlier this month said the party had attempted to get documents of the sale since March 2022 but had failed.

‘What Gordhan fails to realise is that SAA is still a schedule 2 public company under the Public Finance Management Act, whose clear objective is 'to secure transparency, accountability, and sound management of the revenue, expenditure, assets and liabilities of the institutions to which the act applies’, Essack said.

TimesLIVE reported on Wednesday that Gordhan had given the much-awaited documents to the committee after a fierce debate. It stated that reporters waiting outside the committee room saw instances of Gordhan leaving the committee room, only to be followed by committee members, with whom he would quarrel before returning to the committee room.

Asked if the committee was bullying the Minister, Public Enterprises Committee chairperson Khaya Magaxa said: ‘He made mention of that, but unfortunately that’s not correct. The Minister, instead, was bulldozing us. Bullying is a very small word. We were bulldozed. But we had to appeal to him. He’s a respectful man ... of high regard.’

First TimesLIVE report

Second TimesLIVE report

See also full Business Day report