South Africa has a new Minister of Finance

SOUTH AFRICA - In Brief 10 Dec 2015 by Iraj Abedian

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President Zuma stunned the nation yesterday evening by removing Mr N. Nene, his Minister of Finance without any justifications whatsoever. Importantly, this was not part of a cabinet reshuffle; Mr Nene is left in the cold. His choice of the new minister, Mr David van Rooyen, is as astonishing for all interested observers. Mr van Rooyen is a back bencher MP, a little-known provincial political figure with some limited experience at the national Parliament since 2011 as a member of the Standing Committee on Finance. In the domestic policy, financial and fiscal circles he has hardly featured in the past decade or so. He has no executive level experience at the provincial or national levels. However, he was a small town mayor in the past and is a veteran of the ANC's military wing, MK, and as such it is assumed that he is close to the President. Mr Nene's removal is believed to have its roots in his firm and principled disapproval of major public finance projects, directly affecting President Zuma's close political allies. Most prominently, two projects have featured frequently in the recent past; one is related to the financing of the national carrier, SA Airways, and the other is the proposed nuclear power project to be built and financed by the Russians. The implications of these projects are deep and wide for SA's fiscal trends. By all accounts such expenditure plans are irresponsible fiscal ventures. Minister Nene was clear on such issues. The axing of Minister Nene has drawn wide condemnation across the political spectrum in South Africa. One of the country's most distinguished academics and political analyst, Prof Adam Habib, the Vice Chancellor of Wits University, ...