Special Edition: Gordhan, Jonas and the day SA woke up

[Daily Maverick] "This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three hundred and sixty-four." ~ Mark Twain 1 April 2017 [Pravin Gordhan and Mcebisi Jonas: The Faces of the Resistance]( By RANJENI MUNUSAMY Who would have thought that South Africa would have to fight for its liberation for a second time – and so soon after the anti-Apartheid struggle ended? President Jacob Zuma’s stealth move in the dead of night to reshuffle his Cabinet, axing five ministers and two deputy ministers, has completed the surrender of the state to a corrupt network. In a day of high drama and emotion, the two primary targets of Zuma’s axe, Pravin Gordhan and Mcebisi Jonas, asked South Africans to “connect the dots” and “organise”, the widow of Ahmed Kathrada, Barbara Hogan, called for a united movement against Zuma, and the SACP launched a campaign to remove him from office. By RANJENI MUNUSAMY. [Reporter's Notebook: The Day South Africa woke-up]( When it finally happened, it wasn't only the sacking of Pravin Gordhan and Mcebisi Jonas that was shocking. It was the scale of the bloodbath, aka reshuffle, the sheer number of Ministers who were gone. And then came the reaction, the huge, swirling mass of anger expressed through a massive flood of anger (heated words, screaming shouts, spiteful actions), that indicates President Jacob Zuma has badly divided the country he is paid to unite. For this reporter, it was a day unequaled in breaking news, moving developments, and finally, after many years, true, naked emotions. By STEPHEN GROOTES [Reshuffle Chronicles: 'Intelligence' reports – No Securocrat's toolbox should ever be without them]( Police Minister Fikile Mbalula and his deputy, Bongani Mkongi, alongside Home Affairs Minister Hlengiwe Mkhize, are the visible changes within government’s security cluster. Their performance will no doubt be watched, but it's the use of the widely discredited “Operation Check Mate” report in the firing of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and his deputy Mcebisi Jonas that raises red flags. Phrased in the regime change narrative put into the public domain by those associated with President Jacob Zuma’s inner circle, this document elevated the use of so-called intelligence reports targeting those seen as political opponents in ANC factional politicking, opposition parties and non-governmental organisations to the highest level. By MARIANNE MERTEN [Reshuffle Chronicles: 'It’s time to stand up, recall Zuma' - Hogan]( Struggle icon Ahmed Kathrada died on Tuesday. On Friday, the presidency said his national memorial service was “postponed”. If President Jacob Zuma was trying to deflect criticism after his cabinet reshuffle, it’s not working. By GREG NICOLSON. [Op-Ed: Could the removal and replacement of Gordhan be deemed an act of economic terrorism?]( If the rule of law is a foundational value of the Constitution and the President has a duty to uphold, defend and respect the rule of law, the President is obliged not to engage in any conduct which is contrary to the rule of law, as this would be unconstitutional. By IVAN HERSELMAN. [Grave Warning]( [TRAINSPOTTER: WAR]( The Zuma presidency has ended. The Zuma dictatorship has begun. His surprise not-surprise Cabinet reshuffle, which ousted Pravin Gordhan and his deputy Mcebisi Jonas from the Finance Ministry, has already tanked the rand. But it’s going to get much, much worse. And so this enormous act of disrespect was also a declaration of war, and on Friday, South Africans wake up to a worse version of their old country. The time has come to fight for a new one. By RICHARD POPLAK [Op-Ed: A view from inside your Treasury]( I would like to take you inside your Treasury. Your, the people's Treasury. As its outer representation, it is in two buildings - 40 Church Square, the former Reserve Bank Building, designed by Sir Herbert Baker and 240 Madiba Street. The features of its appearance and location carry the country's history, both that which has pained us and that which has been fought for and which we must now continue to fight for. By an SA TREASURY OFFICIAL [Op-Ed: Ahmed Kathrada’s lesson endures]( On Robben Island, Ahmed Kathrada guided members of my family, six members of the US Congress, and two survivors of the Emmanuel AME Church hate crime shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, through a history of torment. By KERRY KENNEDY, President, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. [GroundUp: Pretoria: Anti-Zuma protest in pictures]( Demonstrations took place outside the Union Buildings and National Treasury in support of axed Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan. IHSAAN HAFFAJEE was there to take the pictures. [Reshuffle Chronicles: Zuma taps some of Parliament’s most combative ANC MPs]( President Jacob Zuma has drawn on Parliament for his latest reshuffle and appointed parliamentary committee chairpersons and ANC MPs into his reconstituted executive. The national legislature has lost three committee chairpersons and four ANC MPs, two of whom occupied the parliamentary benches following their arrival after the May 2014 elections or, in the case of Sfiso Buthelezi, last year. Read more about their career highlights and you’ll realise it is time to be very worried indeed. By MARIANNE MERTEN. [Op-Ed: The Gupta Cabinet reshuffle is an outrage. It is time to act.]( The Cabinet reshuffle announced by President Jacob Zuma on behalf of the Gupta family is an outrage – an insult to the suffering of millions of South Africans over many decades. It is a brazen attempt to undermine the gains of the liberation struggle by taking power away from the people and handing it over to a clique based in Dubai. It is a Gupta coup and final confirmation – for those who needed it – that our President, our government and our country have been captured by compradors intent on destroying our democracy. By SAVE SOUTH AFRICA Over the last decade, various South African institutions have been compromised, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) the most vital among them. In this first episode of a unique animated series on state capture, Daily Maverick unpacks the complex game that has been played over the last eight years to gain control of the country's tax authority and, ultimately, its treasury. By BERNARD KOTZE for DAILY MAVERICK CHRONICLE OPINIONISTAS [Ramaphosa may again be the 'nearly man' of SA politics]( These are difficult days for our country and as the axing of Pravin Gordhan and Mcebisi Jonas has shown, in President Jacob Zuma’s cabinet everyone is ultimately dispensable. A column by Judith February [What's Next for ANC?]( President Jacob Zuma’s recent cabinet reshuffle is confirmation of the end of rationality in our politics. The firing of the finance minister Pravin Gordhan and other cabinet ministers at a time when the country needs responsible and effective leadership in the economy shows the extent to which Zuma is disconnected from reality. A column by MZUKISI QOBO [An ANC Implosion: The ‘Comrade’s Dilemma’]( When the Presidency can only take the nation into their confidence at 20 minutes after midnight, it speaks volumes to the perilous state of affairs in the highest office in the land. A column by OSCAR VAN HEERDEN [You Knew. Because we told you.]( In a few years’ time, Jacob Zuma and his gang of thieves will be creatures of history, an ugly nightmare, a cancerous carbuncle that ate away at the naivety of a new nation. The ANC will be trying to regroup. At that point, as few of its leaders are likely to admit to supporting Jacob Zuma as those whose silence tacitly supported Thabo Mbeki’s AIDS denialism. Or white people who admit to benefitting from apartheid. A column by MARK HEYWOOD [FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO A FRIEND]( Copyright © 2017 Daily Maverick, All rights reserved. You are receiving this mail because you are awesome and on the Daily Maverick First Thing subscriber list. [Preferences]( | [Unsubscribe](