Nenegate intentions achieved – three of Treasury’s Big Four now gone

By Alec Hogg

It is a year and a half since the Zuptas made their run at the National Treasury in what we remember as Nenegate. Insiders said in December 2015 that immediate targets for ejection were Treasury’s Big Four – DG Lungisa Fuzile and his deputies Ismail Momoniat, Andrew Donaldson and Kenneth Brown – the men which would decide on whether SA could afford a controversial nuclear power programme.

Former Treasury Director-General Lungisa Fuzile with former finance ministers Pravin Gordhan and Nhlanhla Nene.

After 19 years in service, Fuzile left the building yesterday. His departure was announced less than a week after the midnight cabinet reshuffle when finance minister Pravin Gordhan was fired. Brown, who also worked at Treasury for 19 years, joined Standard Bank in January. At the end of April, 24 year veteran Donaldson left on early retirement.

That means of the Big Four only London School of Economics maths graduate Momoniat, who joined Treasury in 2005, is still in harness. Activist Andrew Feinstein says the nuclear build will make $300m stolen in the Arms Deal look like chump change. After yesterday, it’s no wonder nerves are jangling.

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