S.African Finance Minister To Be Prosecuted For Fraud

JOHANNESBURG, , (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th Oct, 2016 ) - South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan will be prosecuted for fraud, officials said Tuesday, in a move that sent the rand tumbling over concerns about political rivalry and the country's fragile economy.

Gordhan, an internationally-respected technocrat, was appointed only last year to calm panicked investors after President Jacob Zuma sacked two finance ministers within four days. Since then, Gordhan has regularly clashed with Zuma loyalists after vowing to battle poor governance and graft in a government that has been engulfed by regular corruption scandals.

Shaun Abrahams, head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), told reporters that Gordhan would be prosecuted over alleged misconduct when he was previously chief of the South African Revenue Service (SARS) tax collection department.

Gordhan and two others "must be prosecuted and arraigned" for fraud," Abrahams said. Abrahams repeatedly denied that the NPA was being politically influenced, and he lashed out at criticism that it was not independent.

"The days of non-accountability and not holding senior government officials accountable are over," he said. The NPA said the case focused on allegations that Gordhan illegally authorised an early retirement package for a senior colleague at SARS, which Gordhan headed between 1999 and 2009.