Narend Singh, the Inkatha Freedom Party\u2019s finance spokesperson, studied alongside Van Rooyen as they completed distance-learning assignments. \u201cI know him personally \u2026 We used to talk about our assignments,\u201d Singh said. \u201cHe has been focusing on improving his academic communications \u2013 to the extent that he has the gravitas to assume this important post. I can\u2019t comment.\u201d<\/p>\n
What was he like as a person?<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is a gentleman,\u201d said Singh.<\/p>\n
Others in Parliament knew less about the new minister whose running of the treasury they will now\u00a0be overseeing.<\/p>\n
Brandon Topham, the Democratic Alliance\u2019s deputy finance spokesperson and a relative newcomer to the national assembly finance committee, said he had served with Van Rooyen for a few months.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is a pleasant man. He speaks the fiscal lingo but he is most\u00a0definitely an ANC cadre. I don\u2019t see him as a man who will stand up to the president.\u201d<\/p>\n
Topham referred to Van Rooyen as \u201cVan Vuuren\u201d several times.<\/p>\n
Anton Alberts, the Freedom Front Plus\u2019s finance and trade spokesperson, said: \u201cI have never met him. I have never seen him \u2026 or perhaps I have, but he has not made an impression on me. He might not be a bad guy, but his track record doesn\u2019t fill one with confidence. I think he is going to be a yes man,\u201d Alberts said.<\/p>\n
“<\/strong><\/em>He was forced out as mayor for showing a complete lack of leadership and total arrogance”<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Several ANC MPs expressed similar sentiments, although some thought that if Van Rooyen was willing to implement Zuma\u2019s instructions it would be a good thing.<\/p>\n None would speak on the record.<\/p>\n In Merafong, the sprawling municipality he led as mayor during violent protests, starting in 2006, against incorporation into the North West, one resident remembers<\/p>\n Van Rooyen as a target of outrage and protest. \u201cThey despised him so [much]\u00a0that they fire-bombed his house and chased him and his family out of town. He was forced out as mayor for showing a complete lack of leadership and total arrogance.\u201d<\/p>\n His business dealings in that part of the world, which includes the mining town of Carltonville and its neighbouring township of Khutsong, make Van Rooyen seem more like a small-town hustler than an impresario on the national black economic empowerment stage.<\/p>\n He tried his hand at business as a sideline to politics, but none of it appears to have come to much.<\/p>\n Most recently, in May last year, Van Rooyen and his friend Andrew Kupukane registered Phambiri Services. Kupukane, a builder from Khutsong, said on Thursday that the company has not started trading because Van Rooyen has not had time \u201cdue to his involvement in government\u201d. The intention was to buy and sell houses.<\/p>\n “G<\/strong><\/em>ood guy, hands-on”<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Kupukane\u2019s LinkedIn profile boasts a separate company of his that built the standard fare of municipal infrastructure in the area: pavements, speed bumps, \u201ccouncillor\u2019s house\u201d and \u201ctopping of Khutsong community hall\u201d. That company was registered in 2010, after Van Rooyen was mayor.<\/p>\n Kupukane said Van Rooyen was a \u201cgood guy, hands-on\u201d, and that he would do well as finance minister. \u201cWe\u2019ll make it.\u201d<\/p>\n In November 2013, Van Rooyen took directorships with two other companies in the area, Sukuta Enterprise and Late Bloomer Enterprise. With him in both companies is Paulo de Gouveia, Carlton-ville\u2019s Mr Everything.<\/p>\n He owns the local Spar, some bottle stores and service stations, and other property.<\/p>\n De Gouveia said he knew Van Rooyen mostly socially and from after his time as mayor. They had \u201cwatched cricket once together and had a braai once together, and one or two meetings\u201d.<\/p>\n He knew Van Rooyen as a \u201cgood, honest man\u201d but did not know his background well enough to comment on his prospects as finance minister.<\/p>\n “P<\/em><\/strong>eoplecentric, passionate, humble” and a “family man”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Both companies, he said, had not come to much. The intention was to chase municipal tenders \u2013 catering and office equipment, a recycling project on a landfill site he [De Gouveia] owned, and an attempt to sell coal to Eskom during the time of load-shedding.<\/p>\n They hooked up in business only after Van Rooyen\u2019s departure as mayor and only in the recycling project related to the local municipality, he said, because he did not want \u201cfingers pointing\u201d over corruption.<\/p>\n Another partner in Sukuta Enterprise is Sydney Mdluli, who represented Swaziland in athletics in the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Games. Mdluli, now group sports officer of Sibanye Gold, also said their company \u201cnever took off\u201d. He described Van Rooyen as \u201cpeoplecentric\u201d, \u201cpassionate\u201d, \u201chumble\u201d and a \u201cfamily man\u201d. Earlier Van Rooyen companies are Walinzi Protection Services, a Khutsong-based close corporation he joined in 1999, and Muziovukile Mining Projects, a Carltonville close corporation he joined in 2007. Both have been deregistered.<\/p>\n Van Rooyen has a few hundred shares in Welkom Yizani, the News24 empowerment vehicle, Asonge, an MTN empowerment share scheme financed by the National Empowerment Fund, and what appears to be Khulisa, a Telkom empowerment share scheme.<\/p>\n He owns a house in Suideroord, Jo\u2019burg. Van Rooyen and his wife Bernice bought it for R880\u00a0000 in 2011, almost fully bonded.<\/p>\n Van Rooyen on Thursday said he would only engage with the media once he had spoken to his new staff at Treasury.<\/p>\n * Got a tip-off for us about this story? Click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n David van Rooyen’s business deals make him seem more like a small-town hustler than an impresario on the national black economic empowerment stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20480,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/amabhungane.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/94x94.jpg\")
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