See how Jacob zuma has kept south Africa in the dark

Johannesburg - President Jacob Zuma sat through a cabinet meeting on Wednesday without saying a word about the thunderbolt he planned to unleash on the economy a few hours later. Making Zuma’s move even more brazen was the fact that the topic of discussion in the cabinet was the economic crisis.

As a result, there was no plan to manage the fallout from the firing of finance minister Nhlanhla Nene, maximising the damage from the shock announcement.

Minister in the Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Jeff Radebe confirmed on Friday the cabinet had no idea Nene was about to be sacked as he walked his colleagues through a presentation on the state of the economy at the meeting, chaired by Zuma.

The cabinet discussed the implications of the recent ratings downgrade for the economy but this did not deter Zuma from making the damaging announcement hours later.

“There is no way we could have predicted, because we are not sangomas,” Radebe said.

But Independent Media has learnt that a tight circle of Zuma confidants, outside the cabinet and even the ANC’s top leadership, knew about Nene’s fate.