South African billionaire Johann Rupert was the main focus of a vitriolic onslaught from the uMkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) at Luthuli House on Wednesday.

In a Netwerk24 report, MKMVA came out guns blazing against Rupert who recently implored President Jacob Zuma to step aside and go back to his ANC branch for the sake of the future of South Africa’s children.

“The patience of our people towards white monopoly capital whose utterance [sic], as displayed by Rupert, is thinning,”  MKMVA chairperson Kebby Maphatsoe said.

Maphatsoe said Rupert’s “arrogance” sent out a message that white monopoly capital was not prepared to change.

Investment holiday

“Today South Africa is faced with serious challenges of a shrinking economy… we would have expected him to be outspoken about white monopoly capital… But for him and those rich like him, we only experience a sort of investment holiday,” he said.

Media reports last week suggested Rupert had flown from London to persuade Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and other powerful business leaders to oppose the appointment of Des van Rooyen as finance minister.

Van Rooyen was appointed by Zuma after he fired Nhlanhla Nene in December. Zuma removed Van Rooyen from the post a few days later, replacing him with Pravin Gordhan.

Van Rooyen denied Rupert had any influence on his appointment. He said only the ANC was responsible for his redeployment.

“We should know by now that the ANC does have structures that deal with issues of deployment… In my situation the development wasn’t necessarily unique. It was subjected to due process of the ANC. As a result changes were made…,” Van Rooyen told journalists.