Cabinet on Thursday distanced itself from Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane’s renewed insistence that it had endorsed his calls for scrutiny of the banking sector after the accounts of the Gupta family’s Oakbay Holdings were closed.
“On the issue of the statement by my Cabinet colleague, I am as suprised as you are,” Radebe told a post-Cabinet briefing, adding that subject was not raised at the two-weekly meeting of ministers.
He was asked about Zwane’s reply to a parliamentary question this week, in which the mining minister insisted that Cabinet had agreed to four far-reaching recommendations involving commercial banks, the Reserve Bank and National Treasury.
“I wanted to reiterate that the president’s office issued a statement after Minister Zwane issued a statement on the first of September that those were his personal views, [and] were not reflective of the views of task team that was set by Cabinet, but more particularly the views of Cabinet,” he added.
Zwane earned a slap-down from the presidency at the beginning of the month after he issued a statement saying Cabinet had agreed to ask President Jacob Zuma to institute a judicial inquiry into allegations that banks had acted “unilaterally and in collusion” when they severed ties with Oakbay.
But less than a week later in the National Assembly, he stood his ground and stressed the need for such a step. Zuma then undertook to call the minister to order.
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