Gordhan answers questions from the Hawks

“I believe it is in the public interest that I provide them with information I have at hand,” Pravin Gordhan said of his reply to the Hawks.

Johannesburg - South Africa's finance minister, ending a month-long standoff, has answered police questions about a spy unit formed by its tax collection agency, the latest chapter in what is seen as a proxy war between President Jacob Zuma and his detractors.

Pravin Gordhan's remarks on the spy unit, set up in 2007 when he ran the agency, was the latest chapter in a public spat between the Treasury and the police that escalated after Zuma's chaotic shuffling of finance ministers in December.

Read: Hawks to Gordhan: Email or SMS us

Zuma sacked Nhlanhla Nene as finance minister at that time and replaced him with an unknown backbencher. That sparked a sharp sell-off of South African assets and Zuma rescinded his move three days later and installed Gordhan.

Then in early March, Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas said he was offered the job of finance minister by the Gupta family, a business family with close links to Zuma, triggering an uproar that saw opposition parties engineer a no-confidence vote in Parliament, which Zuma survived.

The elite Hawks police unit sent Gordhan a list of 27 questions about his role in setting up the intelligence-gathering tax operation just days before he was set to deliver his Budget speech on February 24.

At the time, Gordhan described the tone and timing of the questions as aggressive and a campaign to discredit him and the integrity of the Treasury. He subsequently ignored two deadlines set by the police unit to respond to questions.

Gordhan issued a statement on Wednesday saying he had replied to the questions. “I am not obliged, under any law, to answer the questions sent to me by the Hawks, but I believe it is in the public interest that I provide them with information I have at hand,” his statement said.

On Thursday, South Africa's top court rules on whether Zuma must repay the state some of the $16 million spent upgrading his private home. Pressure on the scandal-plagued leader will rise if the court rules he violated his oath of office.

“I don't think there is any single factor on its own that will undermine the president,” said Aubrey Matshiqi, political analyst at the Centre for Policy Studies. But the barrage of scandals will test Zuma's dominant position inside the ruling African National Congress (ANC), Matshiqi added.

“The approval rating of the president is probably much higher inside the ANC than it is outside it. If the approval rating of the president was low inside the party he would have to be worried,” Matshiqi said.

The spy unit, a joint operation between the revenue authority SARS and the national intelligence agency, was set up in 2007 to investigate crimes with tax implications, with a focus on organised crime and illicit revenues.

REUTERS