Henley mourns the passing of Pravin Gordhan, “a true patriot and lifelong activist"

It is with great sadness that Henley Africa marks the passing of a remarkable man, Minister Dr Pravin Gordhan. A true patriot and lifelong activist, Gordhan dedicated his life to the service of South Africa. 

As a former Minister of Finance and Public Enterprises, his leadership and unwavering commitment to justice and integrity have left an indelible mark on our nation. Pravin was not only a key figure in the fight against apartheid but also a beacon of hope in the battle against corruption and institutionalised greed. His courage inspired many, and his moral compass guided his actions, making him a respected leader both in South Africa and internationally. 

On 22 November, 2018, Henley Business School and the University of Reading were privileged to present Dr Pravin Gordhan with an honorary doctorate in honour of his contribution to justice, to South Africans, and to all people around the world who have shown courage in standing up against corruption. He was the first ever South African to be honoured in this way. 

I share here the text of the speech that I gave at this memorable ceremony, as it is as relevant today as it was then. 

“Pravin Jamnadas Gordhan is without a doubt the epitome of what this country would like its leaders and its citizens to be. 

He is a man who grew up as Sol Plaatje once inimitably termed it, “a stranger in the land of his birth”. 

Attending school at the then all-boys Sastri College, Gordhan would work in his family’s clothing store in Durban’s Prince Edward St on Saturdays, securing a place at the University of Durban Westville to qualify as a pharmacist after graduating with a BPharm degree in 1973. He was disgusted not just by the injustice of apartheid South Africa but any injustice. He joined both the ANC and the South African Communist Party, both banned organisations, and led student protests against a tyrannical rector. 

As a pharmacist at Durban’s King Edward Hospital, Gordhan would dispense drugs and discuss organised resistance with Mac Maharaj. The same hospital would fire him in 1981 – while he was being detained without trial. But nothing could deter him. 

He was part and parcel of the foundation of the United Democratic Front a couple of years later during the dark and scary days of apartheid repression and successive states of emergency, but also working underground at the same time. 

He would be detained three times, once for 160 days in 1981 – the year the hospital fired him – when the beard he wore was physically ripped from his face by his torturers. 

He was a key member of uMkhonto we Sizwe’s four-year-long Operation Vula, set up as a counter-measure should the negotiations between Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk towards a peaceful transition fail. He would be arrested along with other struggle luminaries like Maharaj and the future head of the SANDF Siphiwe Nyanda. 

Gordhan would play a key role in Codesa, the unprecedented negotiations to transfer power from a racial minority to the majority. He co-chaired the Transitional Executive Council which prepared South Africa for its watershed 1994 elections. 

Afterwards, he would serve in parliament as an MP, chairing the Constitutional Committee of the Constituent Assembly, the midwife of South Africa’s much-lauded and well-tested constitution. But it was really only in 1996 that his career would evolve into what he has become best known for and indeed for what he has paid the highest price for – the elevation of the South African Revenue Services into one of the finest revenue collection agencies in the world. 

Appointed deputy commissioner in March 1998 and commissioner in November of the following year, he created an organisation that was not just a benchmark for civil service excellence, it was the greatest scourge of those hell-bent on enriching themselves in the kleptocracy that would be forever known as state capture. 

A decade after becoming commissioner, Gordhan would be elevated to cabinet as minister of finance, able to use the monies his former agency was so successfully collecting to build a new nation. Alas. it was not to be, as the state capture project shifted gear, so too was Gordhan moved, moved to the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs ministry and then, with great haste, back to Finance a year later after Jacob Zuma made his first midnight reshuffle with Des’ Weekend Special’ Van Rooyen to the horror of the international finance markets. 

Gordhan took up the appointment with his usual grace and dedication, surviving for the next 16 months in a pressure cooker of a portfolio made unbearable by the perpetual sniping attacks and ambushes of the Hawks and the National Prosecuting Authority. 

Not only did he have to an unprecedented level of increasingly vicious ad hominem attacks, he also had to deal with a new SARS commissioner – a man specifically appointed by the president to debase the once proud service to ensure that the kleptocrats could never be held to account and to finally square the circle by ensuring the emasculation of the last of the state agencies who could pose a possible threat to their liberty. 

Gordhan never wavered. In March 2017, he was fired because he could not be suborned, he could not be beaten into submission. 

He did not disappear into obscurity to lick his wounds and regroup. Instead, he threw himself wholeheartedly into openly fighting the people who had prostituted the organisation he had given his life for.

 He was a beacon for others who might have felt the same but were too timid to speak out. He led protests, just as he had as a school pupil and as a university student. He mobilised. He spoke to whoever would listen about the perils of corruption and just how deep its roots extended.

 But he didn’t just speak of corruption; he spoke of its handmaid, too, the collusion of the corporate sector. 

By February the following year, he was back – serving a new president with a new dawn – this time tasked with cleaning up the pillaged State-Owned Enterprises, the once rich looting grounds of the capturers. 

His name, Pravin, is of Sanskrit origin, which means knowledgeable, skilful, and proficient. He is well-named indeed, but he is far more than that; he is honourable, he is principled, he is a true patriot. 

He has fought wars against oppression and injustice; his courage has never been in question. His hardest battles have been against foes he never imagined, former comrades who would accuse him of turning against his own principles, his bitterest skirmishes against enemies he was never able to see, lurking in the twilight of the digital sphere, plotting and scheming to discredit and hurt him in way possible. 

He has survived to have the satisfaction of seeing the “SARS Rogue Unit” narrative, perhaps one of the most tragic episodes in South African media history, wholly discredited and disowned. He has lived to see his own and his loyal colleagues’ reputations restored, but still, his work remains unfinished. 

For Gordhan, the level of success he enjoys is measurable by the decibel level of the brickbats thrown against him. The anguished clamour is rising again; the trolls are hard at work trying their best to shift the narrative as Gordhan methodically goes about turning off the taps into what were once teeming pools of rent-seeking and brazen theft. 

For us at Henley Business School Africa, he is the personification of active corporate citizenship. His courage inspires us, and his unshakeable moral compass and sense of purpose are a beacon to all of us: staff, students and alumni. 

We must all take up the challenge to be activists for good, to fight institutionalised greed, corruption – and indeed, state capture. 

It is for this reason that we take immense pride in being able to present our first-ever honorary doctorate in business administration to Pravin Jamnadas Gordhan. 

Dr Gordhan, you give us hope that South Africa’s new dawn was not a false dawn, that we can yet build an inclusive and prosperous society laid upon the foundations of hope and opportunity not just for our children but our children’s children and their children beyond.” 

Our thoughts and prayers are with Dr Gordhan’s family during this difficult time. Rest in peace, Dr Gordhan. Your fight for justice and integrity will never be forgotten, and your legacy will continue to inspire future generations to strive for a better, more equitable South Africa.