The ANC’s top six officials had told President Jacob Zuma that short-lived finance minister Des van Rooyen was a “lightweight” for the prized national treasury job.
This is according to ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, who told a gathering at the University of Fort Hare that the party’s top officials were the ones who had advised Zuma to remove Van Rooyen, four days after his appointment as finance minister last year.
Besides their concerns about the “weakening Rand” in the wake of former minister Nhlanhla Nene’s surprise replacement by Van Rooyen in December, Mantashe said they had also felt Van Rooyen was just “a lightweight for that portfolio”.
A relatively unknown Van Rooyen was appointed finance minister on December 9 after Nene was unceremoniously booted out.
He was sworn into office the next day. The markets reacted negatively to his appointment as the South African rand dropped 5.4% against the US dollar in a single day.
Van Rooyen’s appointment lasted a few days as he was removed as finance minister on December 13.
Mantashe’s views on Van Rooyen are markedly different from Zuma’s – who still contends that the former Merafong mayor was the “the best qualified” finance minister in a democratic South Africa.
The criticism of the latter statement is that while Van Rooyen might have the necessary academic qualifications for the finance ministry, he lacked experience.
At the time Zuma said, “You know, Van Rooyen is my comrade. He’s a trained finance and economic comrade, more qualified than any minister I have ever appointed in finance”.
Van Rooyen later swapped positions with Pravin Gordhan – who had been finance minister between 2009 and 2014.
Van Rooyen has been in the news recently after claims emerged that he and Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane had taken a trip to Dubai in December, a visit which coincided with the Gupta family’s presence in the same country.
Speaking to the media in Port Elizabeth this week, Van Rooyen said, “the Dubai issue, as much as one appreciates that I am a public figure, simply suggests all of a sudden my private life is something for public scrutiny, but I must indicate that I went to Dubai and I arranged my visit, which was a private visit, long before I made a confirmation of myself as finance minister”.
His “holiday” in Dubai lasted only one day.