Gordhan speaks truth to power

MANY former cabinet ministers and senior government officials tend to ride into the sunset once out of office.

They retire into political hibernation and their voices are lost in the national debate on crucial issues facing the country.

Not so with former finance minister Pravin Gordhan, who was axed by President Jacob Zuma in March in one of the most controversial cabinet reshuffles since the advent of democracy.

His removal from the executive resulted in severe political and financial reverberations, not only here in South Africa, but also in international circles where he was widely respected.

He was a highly competent minister who people trusted. He enjoyed the confidence and respect of leaders across political parties and had liberation credentials that go back many decades. He had joined the ANC underground at an early age and was at the forefront of numerous anti-apartheid campaigns and had suffered through many bannings and detentions.

He is a politician who speaks his mind, is unwavering in his views and is not afraid to speak truth to power.

That brand of courage and consistency was not only seen in his fight against injustice and minority rule during apartheid.

It is just as evident today in the campaign to root out rampant corruption and state capture in our country.

He has not been afraid to stand up to leaders in his own party, the African National Congress, when he encounters signs that they are wavering from the policies and values the party once held dear.

On the occasion of Nelson Mandela’s birthday last week, he boldly urged government leaders to evaluate their performance against the late former president’s vision.

“On Mandela Day, we ought to ask ourselves what aspirations Nelson Mandela and his generation had for our country.

“In part, we have not fulfilled that aspiration,” he told journalists in Johannesburg covering the Conference for the Future of South Africa.

Nor was Gordhan afraid to publicly call for President Zuma to step down so that somebody else could take over leadership and reset the course so that “we can fulfil the kind of aspirations Mandela and his generation had for South Africa”.

Gordhan says those leaders who have not fulfilled these aspirations should have the humility to say they have done their bit but have perhaps overstayed their welcome.

He has been joined by many other leading lights in civil society who are demanding an end to corruption and state capture bedevilling progress and prosperity in our country.