May the Good Lord guide your cancer-excising scalpel, Mr Gordhan

For newspaper editors, the more an announcement, the bigger the headline. So for the Sunday Times to hit South Africa yesterday with a front page with 100 point font shouting “Pravin snubs the Guptas” speaks volumes.

SA’s re-instated Finance Minister, we are told, has withdrawn from the national broadcaster’s traditional post-Budget event because it was co-hosted by the Gupta-owned New Age paper. Equally significant, Gordhan has instructed his crack team at Treasury to scrutinise the Gupta contracts to supply coal to Eskom.

This is precisely the kind of bold action required to arrest the cancer of crony capitalism eating at the fabric of this economy. A start to the excising of a malignant tumour where a favoured few reap obscene rewards through Presidential patronage. Pravin Gordhan qualified as a pharmacist, but is now assuming the role of surgeon in the most important operation of his life. And ours. May the Good Lord guide your scalpel, PG.