ANALYSIS:
Is Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba South Africa’s answer to the 39-year-old Emmanuel Macron, the French politician who has swept like a whirlwind through his country?
With a shiny pate and answers only slightly more carefully cut than his suit, the audience cracked up at the question posed to the 45-year old South African finance minister by World Economic Forum (WEF) executive Adrian Monck on Monday night.
An audience of hundreds turned out to hear him speak in the last session on Monday night. The rows were filled with enough CEO’s to stock many mahogany rows.
Gigaba filed the standard ANC answer. “Branches of the ANC are the final arbiter,” and then he added a telling rider: “It’s important for people to get involved in politics while still young. We do need as many young people in politics in Africa than ever before. We need to see that reflected in ranks of political power brokers. Young people have a different take on politics.”
In a month since he was foist into office at National Treasury after a midnight reshuffle by President Jacob Zuma, Gibaba has become a powerbroker. An audience of hundreds turned out to hear him speak in the last session on Monday night. The rows were filled with enough CEO’s to stock many mahogany rows as well as investors, trade union leaders, fellow cabinet ministers and a significant global and local media contingent.
Source: The Huffington Post.
| . Ferial Haffajee.
