Civil society and opposition leaders warn that the country's increasingly fragile constitutional democracy the envy of the region two decades ago is in imminent danger of being hijacked by politicians and securocrats benefitting from the patronage of the Guptas the billionaire family with close business links to state corporations and to Zuma's family...
'Access to the state kitty through the front door of national treasury is more important to them than the national interest… They want to loot and loot with increased haste while they still can ' said Sipho Pityana a former senior official in the governing African National Congress (ANC) and Chairman of the major gold-mining company AngloGold Ashanti with the Guptas clearly in mind...
On 28 March the day Gordhan received his summons the Guptas filed a new affidavit in the High Court...
It is being asked to require Gordhan to appear in person to defend his position on the refusal of South Africa's commercial banks to accept business from the Guptas...
He contends that it would not be lawful for him to order them to restore the Guptas' access to the banks which was cut off last year over the movement of large sums of money out of the country (AC Vol 57 No 21 Stalwarts push for Zuma's exit)...
Gordhan applied to the High Court for vindication of his position while the Guptas insist it is his duty to order the banks to restore their previous access...