Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe has lambasted businessman Rob Hersov following his comments criticising President Cyril Ramaphosa and his ministers.
At a conference held by BizNews this week, Hersov called for Ramaphosa to resign, saying he is “a useless and spineless failure who is a disgrace and absolute embarrassment to this country”.
The businessman also slammed the president’s Cabinet of “corrupt clowns and criminals”.
‘Mischievous’
Mantashe hit back at Hersov, claiming that the businessman was only critical of government because he wanted to buy the Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa), which was unsuccessful.
Hersov, whose family owned mining company AngloVaal, reportedly made a bid through his company RSA.aero to buy six of Acsa’s smaller airports.
Speaking during a media briefing on progress made in the implementation of the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan on Thursday, Mantashe revealed that he worked at AngloVaal for almost a decade, but the company failed to empower him.
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“I had a discussion with Hersov a few days ago. I said to him, Rob you are from the Hersov family [and they] owned AngloVaal. Of my 32 years in mining, seven and a half years [of those] I was at AngloVaal so your statement confesses that you never intended to give us any experience… you just saw us as production machines,” he said.
“I will meet him when he comes back from London because I think his statement is mischievous because right now he is driving to be given a stake in Acsa. And, in my view, Acsa is one of the most efficient entities of state and it must not be given to him. If not giving him a stake in Acsa is equal to ‘useless ministers’ then so be it,” the minister added.
Mantashe further alleged that he found “Hersov’s fingerprints” during his visit to Sudan “wanting to steal an [oil] bloc given to the South African government”.
‘Misdirected anger’
Meanwhile, Human Settlements Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi said she also spoke to Hersov recently and asked him “what it is that makes you so angry with this government?”
“I have never received a letter, even a phone call or message from him to say these are the issues he concerned with like many other businesspeople that reaches out to us.
“So standing on the other side and insulting this country, is not helpful. Actually he is talking down on the country. When you are an investor, you can’t damage the brand and think the brand is going to give you value.
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“And this is where the problem is: we have to work together to uphold Brand SA for more investments to come and grow the economy,” Kubayi said.
The minister said she was of the view that Hersov had “misdirected his anger”.
“You cannot bully us into agreeing to things that are not correct. We have laws in this country, we have processes. They must be followed, no one is going to be favoured whether they insult us as government or as ministers,” she said.
