President Cyril Ramaphosa said Gordhan was prepared to confront those “who had once been his comrades, whom he had once looked up to as his leaders, but who had abandoned the cause of the people”.Picture: Doctor Ngcobo/Independent Newspapers
Stalwarts of the ANC said on Thursday that former minister Pravin Gordhan had backed the Government of National Unity (GNU) but was hopeful that the ANC could renew and turn itself into an organisation that could get the majority vote at future elections again.
Party leaders, including President Cyril Ramaphosa and secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, paid tribute to Gordhan at his funeral service at Durban’s ICC on Thursday.
Gordhan served two terms as minister of finance, was a former commissioner of the South African Revenue Service and served as minister of public enterprises from February 2018 until his March 2024 announcement of planned retirement.
He died on September 13 at the age of 75. Ramaphosa granted Gordhan a Special Official Funeral which encompassed ceremonial elements performed by the South African Police Service. He also directed that the national flag be flown at half-mast until last night.
Yunus Carrim, the former minister of communications, said he had spoken to Gordhan on three occasions after the May elections and Gordhan’s view was that the balance of forces were weighted against the ANC and the party had no choice but to enter into the GNU.
The ANC lost its majority in the recent elections and for the first time had to enter a power-sharing agreement with other parties.
“As much as the ANC and the DA are fundamentally different parties, the main aim was to get the economy growing, create jobs and reduce inequalities. “I think he saw it as a contingent phase, a temporary phase, so the ANC can consolidate and win back a majority in elections five years or as soon as possible after.”
Carrim said he believed Gordhan was confident this could be done by ensuring economic growth, job creation and reducing inequality.
“For him, it was a tactical decision, but the overall strategy was to use the GNU to build the political, social and moral support for the ANC to become a majority,” Carrim said.
ANC KZN leader Mike Mabuyakhulu said that Gordhan took the initiative after the election results had been announced to hold a meeting with him.
“We discussed the issues of the formation of the GNU and indeed he was for this formation, but he understood that it was supposed to be a transient measure, that it was a setback for the liberation movement, the ANC.
“And he actually felt that the ANC needed to recover and renew itself so that it can regain power,” said Mabuyakhulu.
Former eThekwini city manager Dr Mike Sutcliffe said Gordhan was a strategic person and would have understood that “the ANC, to a large extent, deserved what happened” at the elections.
“He would have said that the creation of a Government of National Unity is what we need right now because the ANC needs its own renewal.”
Sutcliffe said Gordhan would have welcomed the competition for the ANC and the greater measures of accountability that the GNU had created.
“I don't think Pravin would have had any qualms about that, because in the end the biggest strategy is that we want to address poverty, we want to address unemployment, we’ve got to address inequality and we still have all three of those in our country.
“The best way to do this is to make sure everyone’s part of that organisation and the medium-term plan is going to have to deal with (addressing these issues),” Sutcliffe said.
Ramaphosa said that Gordhan was an activist who was principled and stood firm in the face of state capture.
“During one of the most painful chapters in our democratic history, as the state was being looted by the powerful and connected, he chose to resist.”
Ramaphosa said Gordhan was prepared to confront those “who had once been his comrades, whom he had once looked up to as his leaders, but who had abandoned the cause of the people”.
“As many others looked away, his revolutionary consciousness demanded no less of him than that he speak out. For him, it was no different to when he joined the Struggle against apartheid. It was a choice between what was right and what was wrong and it was a choice between standing with the people or standing against the people,” Ramaphosa said.
He said that Gordhan took strength and encouragement from the fact that he was not alone. Ramaphosa said among Gordhan’s ‘comrades, among activists, among civic leaders, among public servants, among broader society, was a growing movement against state capture’.
“In ways that history has yet to fully record, he played a pivotal role in giving form and effect to that movement.
“This earned him the ire of the enablers of State Capture,” Ramaphosa said.
The Mercury
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