Morning Star.png ANC Warns of Retaliation as Financial Boycott is Widened James Tweedie, The Morning Star, London, 2 September 2016 South Africa's ruling ANC hit back yesterday after a financial boycott of government-friendly firms was extended to state-owned enterprises. "Ethical" finance firm Futuregrowth Asset Management said on Wednesday it was suspending loans to state firms - because the government was trying to manage them. It also seized on media speculation that state electricity company Eskom had been "captured" by the wealthy Indian Gupta family and a possible corruption probe against Finance Minister Parvin Gordhan. "We've observed recent reports that strongly hint of conflict between branches of South Africa's government, the possible machinations of patronage networks and a seeming challenge to the National Treasury's independence," Futuregrowth chief investment officer Andrew Canter told Bloomberg news. "Into this already unsettling environment, we note the recent and sudden announcement that the presidency would chair a 'council' to directly oversee the state-owned entities," a Futuregrowth statement said. ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa said yesterday: "Futuregrowth, or other any investor, should await the outcome of these interventions before taking any pre-emptive stance. "ANC-led government must not hesitate to comprehensively respond and act on any concerns regarding their governance frameworks and institutional integrity." Mr Gordhan was reinstated last December following a Cabinet reshuffle after tycoon Johann Rupert and the pro-opposition media demanded it. The latest Gupta allegations revolve around upfront payments stipulated in Eskom's contract to buy coal from their Tegeta mining firm. On Wednesday, Eskom chief financial officer Anoj Singh told parliament's public enterprises committee that all big coalmining firms included such prepayments in their contracts and the Tegeta deal was needed to end frequent "load-shedding" blackouts. Chief executive Brian Molefe added that the allegations against the Guptas were merely "gossip and innuendo." The Guptas announced last week that they were selling all their holdings in the country following a boycott by all the banks earlier this year. [email protected] From: http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-5caf-ANC-warns-of-retaliation-as-financ ial-boycott-is-widened#.V8kYGvl9600 __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 14057 (20160902) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/yclsa-eom-forum/002a01d204e5%2445dbf2b0%24d193d810%24%40com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
