Humairaa Mayet | Image: News24 | 29 November 2018
On Tuesday, 27 November 2018, the EFF laid charges against Pravin Gordhan, following his charges against the EFF which were laid on Monday at the Brooklyn police station.
Speaking to Salaamedia’s Inayet Wadee, Kyle Cohen, a News24 investigative journalist, explained that the EFF’s charges against Gordhan lack a factual basis. Cohen stated that claims laid against Gordhan by the EFF contain multiple discrepancies.
Gordhan laid charges of criminal defamation and criminal injuria against Julius Malema, the leader of the EFF. Subsequently, Malema accused Gordhan of money laundering, racketeering, fraud, and corruption, claimed Cohen.
After laying the charges, the EFF circulated a draft sheet to South African journalists containing precisely what they would require the police to investigate. However, Cohen claimed that a number of unexplained inconsistencies appeared in the EFF’s release.
According to the draft sheet, Gordhan had a bank account in Canada which contained R 675 million. Upon further investigation, stated Cohen, the account number listed in the draft bill did not correlate to the format of account numbers of the Royal Bank of Canada. Therefore the account was essentially non-existent.
Furthermore, suspicions arose as to why Gordhan would choose to store his money in Canada as the country has strict investment and banking laws. Later it was discovered that when Gordhan was the SARS commissioner, said Cohen, large amounts of work were done with the Canadian tax authorities in order to develop a taxation system in South Africa. However, this does not offer an explanation as to why Gordhan would use a bank in Canada.
The EFF also laid charges of fraud and corruption against Anisha, Gordhan’s daughter and a director of VOX Telecom. Cohen stated that there was no evidence showing that Anisha got anything more than her stipulated salary, thereby making the EFF’s claims against Gordhan’s daughter moot.
Finally, Cohen declared that the ANC has not strongly supported Gordhan and has not condemned attacks against him in any way.
