News24Wire reports that Treasury director-general Dondo Mogajane on Friday told the judicial commission of inquiry into allegations of state capture that when Nhlanhla Nene was removed as finance minister in 2015 nearly 150,000 jobs were lost.  

At the time, Mogajane had been the deputy director general for public finance at National Treasury.  He told the inquiry chairperson, deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo:  "Business confidence was at its lowest following Nene's removal.  148,000 jobs were lost in terms of the model we ran.  We saw a reduction of about R378-billion in the JSE markets capitalisation.  We also costed the impact of at least 1.1 % of GDP by the end of that year 2017."  Nene was replaced by Des van Rooyen, who in turn was replaced by Pravin Gordhan just days later.

• Read the original of a short report at Engineering News
• Read too, Economy never fully recovered after Nene's axing, state capture inquiry told, at IOL News

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