The Presidency has confirmed instructing Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and his deputy, Mcebisi Jonas, to return from investment roadshow.

“President Jacob Zuma has instructed the Minister of Finance, Mr Pravin Gordhan and Deputy Minister Mcebisi Jonas to cancel the international investment promotion roadshow to the UK and US and return to SA immediately,” the Presidency said in a statement.

The Presidency did not provide any explanation for the instruction.

Business Day was earlier told that Zuma had ordered them to return because the trip was “unauthorised”.

Gordhan is expected to return to SA on Monday evening.

But he told Bloomberg by phone that he was carrying on with his plans to meet investors in London.

And the second leg of the roadshow – to the US – which would include Gordhan’s deputy Mcebisi Jonas, has been called off following instructions from the president. Jonas was set to leave for the US tonight.

Business Day was informed that the cancellation of the roadshow was communicated in a letter written by Treasury director-general Lungisa Fuzile.

The roadshows were originally authorised by the president, but this authorisation was rescinded, officials said.

The rand weakened back to R12.58/$ at 11:20am as the news broke. Before the shock news, the rand looked set to go under R12.30/$.

“The domestic currency’s sharp move today reflects fears that Minister Gordhan’s tenure may be in jeopardy again,” Investec economist Annabel Bishop said on Monday.

Peter Attard Montalto of Nomura read the move as a test of the market reaction to a Cabinet reshuffle.

“The Presidency has seen such a strong rand and is wondering how much of a political shock it can take – they do watch these things closely,” he said.

“So far the market reaction has been very muted. Suggesting they could indeed go ahead with a reshuffle.”

He also said this represented “a dramatic shift in risks”, as previously it was expected that a reshuffle would leave Gordhan in place.

But Gordhan “is used to playing such high stakes political poker games. It seems this week is going to be really decisive either way.”

Gordhan’s future as finance minister has been in question since he replaced Des van Rooyen in December 2015, and the threat of arrest has persistently hung over him.

In October 2016, the NPA said it was investigating him for fraud but later dropped those charges.

Earlier in 2016, he was investigated by the Hawks over allegations of a rogue unit at SARS, and there was talk of his imminent arrest.

President Jacob Zuma was reported to have said early last month that Treasury was standing in the way of transformation.

A source told Business Day that the issue that emerged strongly at a three-day meeting of the ANC was that SA was a developmental state and Zuma argued that developmental programmes and projects had to be prioritised.

A “political package” was put together by the ANC to bring about a “radical economic transformation”, which relates to the structure of the economy and to ownership,” the source said.

Gordhan has been instrumental in SA’s efforts to stave off rating downgrades by international credit agencies. SA has spent the past year-and-a-half on the brink of a downgrade to junk status, and a review by Moody’s is due on Friday next week.

Gordhan is also embroiled in a court battle with Oakbay Investments, a company owned by Zuma’s family friends, the Guptas.

Gordhan approached the High Court for a declaratory order confirming he cannot intervene in a dispute between Oakbay Investments and banks that have closed the family’s accounts.

The finance minister has also been outspoken about the social grants fiasco, calling Net1 CEO Serge Belamant “extremely arrogant and disrespectful to government”, over his attempts to force government to extend an illegal contract to pay grants to Net1 subsidiary CPS on the company’s terms.

“Whether this is a reshuffle or not, the timing is definitely picked to inflict pain and embarrassment on an already live-wire situation,” George Herman, chief investment officer at Citadel Investment Services in Cape Town, told Bloomberg. “There is no other practical reasoning for the timing of this.”

With Bloomberg