The elite Hawks police unit is investigating a tax surveillance unit
within the South African Revenue Service (SARS) set up in 2007 when
Gordhan was the commissioner of the revenue authority.
South
Africa's Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan delivers his 2016 budget
address to the parliament in Cape Town, February 24, 2016.
South Africa's Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan
is not being investigated for espionage over his part in establishing a
surveillance unit in the revenue service and does not face arrest, the
state prosecutor and police said on Monday.
The elite Hawks police unit is investigating a tax surveillance unit within the South African Revenue Service (SARS) set up in 2007 when Gordhan was the commissioner of the revenue authority.
Gordhan, who headed SARS from 1999 to 2009, has said the spy unit set up at the tax agency was lawful.
The
National Prosecuting Authority head Shaun Abrahams asked South Africans
to "stop deriving political mileage of this matter," after media
reports last week that the minister's arrest was imminent.
"There are no charges of espionage being investigated against minister Gordhan," Abrahams told a news conference.
"In
the event that the minister is implicated, I will make the decision at
the conclusion of the investigation as to whether or not any person or
persons must be prosecuted, including the minister."
Hawks
spokesman Hangwani Mulaudzi had said earlier Gordhan was not a suspect
and that police were not singling out the finance minister in its
investigation of the surveillance unit.
The Sunday
Independent reported at the weekend that Hawks chief Berning Ntlemeza
had sent Gordhan's lawyers a letter to reassure him he would not be
arrested.
Gordhan, who was reinstated as finance
minister in December, said last week that a newspaper report of his
imminent arrest was an attack on the Treasury.
The
rand firmed briefly after the news Gordhan faced no arrest, touching
15.5230 per dollar in early trade from a close of 15.6355 on Friday. The
currency was flat as of 0940 GMT.
The currency
had weakened last Monday to a two-month low after the newspaper report
on Gordhan's arrest. The report was denied by the presidency, police and
prosecutors.
The report had raised concerns of a
repeat of the run on the rand and bonds in December after President
Jacob Zuma changed finance ministers twice in a week. It also comes as
South Africa is trying to fend off a credit ratings downgrade.
Moody's
earlier this month left its rating of South Africa's debt at Baa2, two
levels above sub-investment grade, but assigned a negative outlook,
saying risks to implementation of structural and fiscal reforms remained
a factor.
Fitch and Standard & Poor's rate the country one notch above sub-investment grade and plan to release their reviews in June.
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