{"id":306611,"date":"2017-03-31T06:50:56","date_gmt":"2017-03-31T06:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=306611"},"modified":"2017-03-31T06:50:56","modified_gmt":"2017-03-31T06:50:56","slug":"south-africas-president-zuma-sacks-finance-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=306611","title":{"rendered":"South Africa&#8217;s President Zuma sacks finance minister"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">South Africa&#8217;s President Jacob Zuma has sacked Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan after days of speculation that rocked the country&#8217;s markets and currency.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Gordhan will be replaced by Malusi Gigaba, said a statement issued late on Thursday by the president&#8217;s office.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this week, President Zuma recalled Mr Gordhan from planned events in the UK.<\/p>\n<p>Sfiso Buthelezi will become Deputy Finance Minister, replacing Mcebisi Jonas.<\/p>\n<p>President Zuma also made a number of other changes in the cabinet.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_210313\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-210313\" style=\"width: 660px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?attachment_id=210313\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-210313\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-210313\" src=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Zuma-2-1-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"Pressure has been growing on President Jacob Zuma to step down \" width=\"660\" height=\"371\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-210313\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pressure has been growing on President Jacob Zuma to step down<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;I have directed the new ministers and deputy ministers to work tirelessly with their colleagues to bring about radical socioeconomic transformation and to ensure that the promise of a better life for the poor and the working class becomes a reality,&#8221; President Zuma&#8217;s statement said.<\/p>\n<p>Last October, Mr Gordhan was charged with fraud &#8211; but the charges were later dropped.<\/p>\n<p>He has described the allegations as politically motivated.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Gordhan has been seen as standing up to President Zuma in cabinet and has warned against corruption becoming rampant.<\/p>\n<p>The South African Communist Party, an ally of the governing African National Congress, had earlier lodged a formal objection to plans to dismiss Mr Gordhan, who is widely respected internationally.<\/p>\n<p>Many senior ANC figures also opposed the finance minister&#8217;s removal.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance, South Africa&#8217;s main opposition party, said it would call a vote of no-confidence in President Zuma in parliament.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Gordhan&#8217;s recall from the UK caused South Africa&#8217;s rand to lose nearly 5% of its value against major currencies earlier this week.<\/p>\n<p>Pressure has been growing on Mr Zuma to step down amid numerous allegations of corruption.<\/p>\n<p>He denies the claims.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa&#8217;s President Jacob Zuma has sacked Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan after days of speculation that rocked the country&#8217;s markets and currency. Mr Gordhan will be replaced by Malusi Gigaba, said a statement issued late on Thursday by the president&#8217;s office. Earlier this week, President Zuma recalled Mr Gordhan from planned events in the UK. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[3803,3908,5735,481],"class_list":["post-306611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","tag-finance-minister","tag-jacob-zuma","tag-president-zuma","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=306611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306611\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=306611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=306611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=306611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}