By Sipho Seepe
George Orwell is attributed to have famously counselled that “in a time of universal deceit — telling the truth is a revolutionary act”. This counsel could not have been more apposite as friends and foes attempt to assess the contribution of Pravin Gordhan, the former Minister of Public Enterprises, to the health of South African politics. As it is with many of us, he was not without controversy.
It is equally true that people are prone to remember evil faster than professed good deeds. As Shakespeare correctly averred, “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.”
Regarding Gordhan, opinions have always been varied and at times sharply divided. His passing was not going to change that. Mainstream media wasted no time projecting Gordhan as a hero and a true patriot. People’s recollections will always be filtered through the experiential lens. Reggae superstar Bob Marley summed it up brilliantly when he said, “he who feels it knows”. None of us has a godly right to dictate or impose a particular way of honouring the dead.
The notion that it is un-African to speak ill of the dead is utter nonsense. They have done so countless times in the cases of FW de Klerk, Hendrik Verwoerd, and many other deplorables. At the core of this notion is a misrepresentation or misunderstanding of what Ubuntu entails. Regarding this, Professor Ndumiso Dladla writes. “Ubuntu as humanness obliges one to be humane, respectful, and polite towards others. The obligation to be humane towards others is an ethical imperative.”
Dladla continues. “The determination whether one is umuntu or not has its basis on the known history of the actions of a particular person and whether such a person has in fact conducted herself humanely, that is, with Ubuntu.” (See Dladla N, 2017, Journal of African Philosophy, Culture and Religions. Vol. 6. No. 1.)
Speaking to a receptive and ululating ANC crowd in 2017, the chief organiser of the ANC elections, now its Secretary General, Fikile Mbalula had this to say. “Pravin Gordhan must not use the name of the ANC to promote anarchy in South Africa. He must form his political party if he is fed up [with] the ANC. We will meet each other toe [to] toe.” With his passing, Mbalula’s office has since changed tune.
A few months before his passing, the Democratic Alliance issued the most damning assessment of Gordhan. Dr Mimmy Gondwe MP – DA Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises, was unequivocal that “Gordhan leaves behind a trail of destruction in the SOE sector” (March 8, 2024). The DA contended.
“Gordhan squandered the public goodwill that he had at the beginning of his tenure as the Minister of Public Enterprises by choosing to pander to the ANC … Perhaps a serious indictment to his legacy is that he has left many SOEs in a much worse shape than he found them, with some on the verge of collapse.”
To drive the point home, the DA continued. “Gordhan stood idly by as Eskom lurched from one crisis to another. Since his appointment to the Public Enterprises portfolio, South Africans have spent more days in the dark than at any other time since the crisis began 17 years ago.
@By failing to decisively deal with the load shedding crisis, Gordhan should shoulder part of the blame for South Africa’s struggling economy, loss of jobs, closure of businesses, and attendant decline in private sector investment. Currently, he has triggered an unprecedented attack on parliamentary transparency and accountability.”
By the time he stepped down, the image of being a corruption buster and a man of integrity had long fizzled into oblivion. Not shy about its ambition, the DA argued that “it is the only party big enough and with the institutional capacity to rescue South Africa and get our country working again”.
A week earlier, Mondli Makhanya, City Press’ Editor-at-Large (03 March 2024) also described Gordhan in less glowing terms. “The Gordhan who returned to Cabinet in 2018 under Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration was one with a puffed-up head and an air of invincibility… When Gordhan bows out of formal politics after the 29 May general election, it will be as a much-reduced figure in the public eye. The halo of those state-capture years now resembles a rusty piece of copper. As minister of public enterprises, he has presided over the demolition of state-owned enterprises that form the backbone of the South African economy.”
Regarding Gordhan’s arrogance, Makhanya wrote. “Gordhan’s superiority complex was on full display as he told parliamentarians – and the South African citizenry – that he knew best what they should not know. It was supremely arrogant and a far cry from the erudite and blistering speeches he once made about accountability.”
Professor Malegapuru Makgoba, who had also worked closely with Gordhan echoed the same sentiments. In his book, Leadership for Transformation Since the Dawn of South Africa’s Democracy, Makgoba had this to say. “Gordhan’s greatest weakness is a passion for interference, intervention, micromanagement, meddlesome behaviour…He has the misguided belief that his way is the only way to solve complex problems.”
Since his passing, the usual suspects have fallen over each other in their stampede to try to project Gordhan as a selfless and humble servant of the people. Fortunately, history has no blank pages. No amount of historical revisionism would airbrush Gordhan’s disastrous tenure as a Minister of Public Enterprise.
In this era of falsification, some have sought to remind us of Gordhan’s heroic exploits during the apartheid. This much cannot be taken away from him. We should remind ourselves, however, that the real test of the measure of the man is not when he is not in power, but when he is in power.
As a self-styled prime minister, Gordhan was untouchable. Like his boss, President Ramaphosa, he served the white monopoly’s private interests with a missionary zeal. Gordhan’s history of struggle brings little comfort to tens of thousands who are victims of the consequences of his decisions and actions.
Only comfortable with sycophants, Gordhan made it his business to attack and destroy black professionals who did not fall for his wicked machinations. It is precisely for this reason that the Economic Freedom Front took a defiantly brutal stand against attempts to sugar-coat Gordhan’s disastrous trail.
Aside from stating categorically that “it will not shed a tear for the likes of Pravin Gordhan, nor will we celebrate the false legacies created by his apologists”, the Economic Freedom Fighters’ statement on the death of Pravin Gordhan echoes what others have said. Instead of jumping on the bandwagon of falsehood, the EFF was unrepentantly defiant in its response.
“The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) notes the death of Pravin Gordhan without any pretence of sorrow … We cannot mourn counter-progressive forces that stood against the potential of building a successful, sovereign country that serves its people. Instead, we are reminded of the wreckage he leaves behind — wreckage that has ravaged the lives of ordinary South Africans.”
The EFF continues.
“Under his leadership, Eskom became a shadow of its former self, plunging this country into a permanent state of load-shedding, while blackouts shattered livelihoods and businesses. Transnet, which once facilitated the efficient movement of goods, is now in ruins. Denel, a proud defence company, was brought to its knees, while SAA, our national airline, was sold off in a corrupt deal that reeks of treason.”
Gordhan had so much to give. But he became a victim of his self-inflated ego. The fact that his passing is being celebrated sadly reflects how far down the precipice the country has descended. The intolerance and the holier-than-thou attitude from a certain section of our society would only take us to a situation of mutually assured destruction. This should serve as a wake-up call. The time is up for the multi-millionaire apologists.
* Professor Sipho P Seepe is a higher education and strategy consultant
** The views in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media