As South Africa continues to reel from a week that seems like something out of a bad movie, rumours about what is happening behind closed doors abound.

One such rumour is that the National Treasury signed off on the highly controversial nuclear deal with Russia, the new Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba wasting no time in doing the bidding of his bosses.

The Treasury has hit out at the rumour, with this below from News24:

National Treasury issued a series of tweets on the matter on Sunday night.

“The Minister arrived (on) Friday and has not yet gone beyond boardrooms where he met management and later had a telecon with rating agencies,” the treasury account stated.

“He is formally occupying his office tomorrow and will have a briefing meeting with the outgoing Minister Pravin Gordhan in the morning. There are no documents of deals ready for signature on nuclear. Therefore the reports are misleading and mischievous.”

Gigaba’s spokesperson Mayihlome Tshwete also took to Twitter to say he had signed “not a single thing”, not even to sign off for the printing of his business cards.

He said Gigaba [pictured above] had not even received any documents from the Director-General.

“Sadly, we must now release a statement to deny fake news, then the story will be about the denial,” he lamented.

It seems the rumours stem from little-known ANC member Sibusisiwe Mngadi, who had taken to Facebook and alleged that the deal was signed on Saturday night.

The Citizen with those allegations:

…Mngadi, who lists as among her occupations being a part-time lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal Pietermaritzburg and an area manager at the Msunduzi Municipality, wrote: “The Nuclear Deal deadline was last night. Guess whose signature is on the paper? The new Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba.”

She alleges the deal will benefit President Jacob Zuma’s controversial nephew Khulubuse Zuma to the tune of R50 billion by his company being given the contract to build nuclear plants.

“Mission Nuclear done and dusted. Guess whose company is in charge of building the nuclear plants?

“Khulubuse Zuma is the SA holding company for the Nuclear plants. The next 20 yrs Khulubuse Zuma will be making more than 50billion. Congratulations, mission accomplished.”

She did not reveal what her source for this allegation was and many of her followers questioned whether she was properly informed or telling the truth.

Also hopping on that bandwagon was Vytjie Mentor, following on from her personal take on why Pravin Gordhan was sacked (HERE):

Mentor repeated the allegation about the deal being signed, though it’s not clear if she sourced her allegations from Mngadi or verified them independently.

She wrote: “Gigaba signed the nuclear deal last night. It will be R6 trillion with over-runs. All South Africans are now officially slaves of the Russians, and thus will be the case for the next 100 years.”

If you want to know why the nuclear deal is such a stinker, and one that will continue to haunt South Africans for years to come, check THIS out.

So who exactly does one believe? It seems incredibly unlikely that the new Finance Minister would have signed off on anything yet, let alone the the most expensive deal in South African history.

That’s a sentiment shared by Ranjeni Munusamy, the Daily Maverick’s associate editor:

I think for now let’s hold off on the panic on that front, although getting that deal inked before Zuma can be ousted does seem to be a rather high priority task for those who stand to benefit.

Happy #BlackMonday, everyone.

[sources:news24&citizen]