Newly appointed Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba appealed to South Africans on Saturday to give him the opportunity to steer the National Treasury ship and to judge him on his own record of service in the new post.
“The people of this country, the long-suffering ordinary citizens, are relying on their public representatives to better their lives. I will not betray our people by allowing individual or special interests to prevail over the public good,” Gigaba, flanked by his new deputy, Sfiso Buthelezi, and director-general Lungisa Fuzile, told a media briefing in Pretoria.
“Every decision I make will be for the public good and I will be responsive and accountable to the public on those decisions. Therefore I will ask sceptical members of the opposition, the media, and the public to judge me on my actions in the coming months, not speculation and rumours.”