Are SA banks sound?  According to the Minister of Higher Education, “no”. 

According to the Minister of Finance it’s “yes”.

Minister Blade Nzimande recently said our banks are facing a “huge crisis”. 

The Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan, says there is “no crisis in our banking system”.

If an industrialist was wondering whether to invest in South Africa, who should he believe?

Perhaps Nzimande also agrees with Standard & Poor’s, the ratings agency, when it recently downrated South Africa, despite her excellent record of financial management.

Nzimande is also secretary-general of the SA Communist Party.  Communism has failed disastrously every time it has been tried, bringing misery to the masses but  privilege to its leaders.

Does Nzimande think that South Africa should follow the communist path and so escape what he calls “the global capitalist crisis”?

This extraordinary and damaging row is more about bitter divisions in the ANC coalition than it is about opinions on banking.  It began when Reuel Khoza, chairman of Nedbank, made some critical remarks about the present government.

Khoza is believed to have been in the political camp of Thabo Mbeki.

There was then hysterical denunciation of Khoza from ANC figures in the Jacob Zuma camp, such as Gwede Mantashe, ANC secretary-general, and Jimmy Manyi, government spokesman.

Now Nzimande, also believed to be in the Zuma camp, has joined in, quite happy to attack the reputation of South Africa’s banking system in pursuit of his political feud with Khoza.

For too many leading comrades in the ANC coalition their battles against each other are more important than the welfare of South Africa.