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2nd LD-Writethru: S. African prosecutor drops charges against finance minister

Xinhua, October 31, 2016 Adjust font size:

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has dropped fraud charges against Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and two of his former colleagues, NPA Director Shaun Abrahams announced on Monday.

This came as Gordhan and two former South African Revenue Service (SARS) officials Ivan Pillay and Oupa Magashula were about to appear in court on Wednesday to face fraud charges.

Abrahams told a press briefing in Pretoria that he was satisfied that Gordhan, Pillay and Magashula did not have the requisite intention to act unlawfully.

"I have decided to overrule the intention to prosecute. I have directed the summonses to be withdrawn with immediate effect," Abrahams said.

The NAP summoned the three earlier this month to appear in court on November 2 over fraud charges. The NPA said Gordhan, former SARS Commissioner Magashula and former SARS Deputy Commissioner Pillay would be charged with fraud amounting to more than 1.1 million rand (about 80,000 U.S. dollars) in relation to Pillay's early retirement pay-out.

Gordhan was also accused of illegally setting up a "rogue unit" to spy on taxpayers, including President Jacob Zuma, when he was SARS commissioner between 1999 and 2009.

The summon caused jitters at the financial market amid fears that international rating agencies are about to downgrade South Africa's credit rating to junk status. This prompted calls for the NPA to drop charges against Gordhan.

Also on Monday, the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) urged Zuma to immediately suspend Abrahams pending inquiry into his fitness to hold office.

The DA argued that Abrahams initiated these charges against Gordhan for political purposes, and was forced to make an embarrassing about-turn following a lack of evidence and huge public outcry, DA leader Mmusi Maimane said.

At his Monday press briefing, Abrahams rejected calls for him to resign. Endit