Jacob Zuma, the South African President has denied arresting Pravin Gordhan, country's finance minister on Sunday referring the news as simply rumor. The Hawks have allegedly been assigned by the SA government to arrest him in a bid to thwart his efforts ending government corruption.
The Hawks are South Africa's new Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI). The Directorate targets organized crime, economic crime, corruption and other serious crime referred by the President or the South African Police Service (SAPS).
The special police unit has allegedly probed involvement of Gordhan and eight other former officials in setting up a special unit within the South African Revenue Service (SARS). They have already forwarded their probe docket to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). The prosecutors have allegedly been waiting for a 'political go-ahead' to continue with the prosecution.
The Hawks' investigation has also targeted former finance minister Trevor Manuel. But the police unit hasn't contacted him and he believes, the Hawks must abide by the constitutional right of the individuals. However, Gordhan considers the threats of his arrest as legitimate, reports Bloomberg citing a report of Beeld newspaper from Johannesburg as the source. The NPA has denied receiving docket from the Hawks. However, the Authority has acknowledged probing into the so-called rogue unit inside the SARS under the leadership of an NPA prosecutor. SARS has initially considered forming a ring fenced unit inside the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) in 2006. Following a shake up inside the spy agency by former President Thabo Mbeki in 2007, it has guised the unit under the tag of 'National Research Group'. However, state departments are not allowed to covert information under South African law, observe legal commentators, according to a report published in News24. Meanwhile, economists have warned that arrest of Gordhan may plunge the country into risks of financial crisis. Iraj Abedian of Pan African Capital and Dawie Roodt, chief economist at Efficient Group, both have echoed the warning. Gordhan's efforts over the past few months have assured the international markets and investors of sound macro-economic stability and political certainty in South Africa. Moody's has retained country's credit rating instead of downgrading during last week as ominous outcome of those bold efforts. Fitch and Standard & Poor's are expected to disclose their ratings during the next month, reports Independent Online.
