After some 53 years in activism, politics and public life, Pravin Gordhan is calling it quits after the 29 May elections.
After some 53 years in activism, politics and public life, one-time pharmacist, Codesa delegate, tax boss and minister, Pravin Gordhan is calling it quits after the 29 May elections. It’s not a surprise — word in late 2022 was that President Cyril Ramaphosa had persuaded him to stay until the elections.
Less in the public eye was Gordhan’s influence in Jacob Zuma’s 2018 exit from the presidency. It’s understood to be linked in no small way to changing attitudes in the South African Communist Party to which Gordhan belonged for most of his political life, which began in 1971 at the Natal Indian Congress.
Gordhan’s retirement just after he turns 75 in April comes as Transnet and Eskom remain the biggest risks to South Africa’s economy. Both have racked up massive debt despite bailouts of scores of billions of rands and are responsible for the country’s logistics and electricity crises, respectively.
Gordhan lasted until March 2017 when, while on an investment promotion tour abroad with his deputy, Mcebisi Jonas, he was sacked in a midnightCrucially, this reshuffle was opposed by the SACP, first in January 2017 when the first rumours emerged, and then when it happened. It was one of the first public signals of the SACP’s chill towards Zuma, whom it had enthusiastically supported at the ANC’s 2007 Polokwane national conference and then in the 2009 election.
In 1971, the trained pharmacist joined the Natal Indian Congress and was active in student and civic mobilisation. During the 1970s he also became involved in underground activities of the ANC and SACP, where he was a member until at least 1998. He served on the party’s central committee, as he did for a decade from 2012 on the ANC’s highest decision-making structure, the National Executive Committee.
The charges caused the rand to tumble. They were regarded as machinations against Gordhan because he stood firm against State Capture efforts to dip into the national coffers.All the charges against Gordhan and his co-accused were dropped in October 2016.
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