Thapelo Lekabe

By Thapelo Lekabe

Senior Digital Journalist


Malusi Gigaba is the biggest enabler of corruption, says EFF

Listening to the finance minister deliver his maiden MTBPS is tantamount to endorsing corruption, the party says.


Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) MP and deputy president, Floyd Shivambu, on Wednesday said the red berets would not sit in parliament and treat Malusi Gigaba as though he was a “legitimate” finance minister.

This after the EFF attempted to prevent Gigaba from delivering his maiden medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) in National Assembly, calling him a “criminal” and a “Gupta boy”.

“We decided to raise an urgent motion in parliament that Malusi Gigaba must be prevented from delivering the medium-term budget policy statement because of all the people that are involved in state capture,” Shivambu said, speaking to reporters outside the steps of parliament following a walkout by his party.

“Gigaba has been the route through which the Guptas have captured Eskom, Transnet, Denel and all the major state-owned companies…”

He accused Gigaba, South Africa’s fourth finance minister in two years, of being the “biggest enabler of corruption” and a stooge of the controversial Gupta family, close associates of President Jacob Zuma implicated in state capture allegations.

“Gigaba has been the route through which the Guptas have captured Eskom, Transnet, Denel and all the major state-owned companies. He is continuing on the same trend, so to sit there and legitimise him and treat him as if he is a legitimate minister of finance [is] collaboration in crime,” said Shivambu.

“We cannot be complicit in criminal activity that is going on in South Africa. We are not like ANC members who complain in memorial services every day, but they come to clap hands and applaud corruption that is ongoing in SA.”

He added the EFF would not allow corruption and state capture to continue in the country under their watch.

“We cannot as parliament continue to legitimise the corrupt practices … the corruption has not stopped, the Guptas continue to loot our state,” said Shivambu.

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