Gordhan steals the show at Maggs launch
● “When are you going to feature me in your column?” kids Iman Rappetti cheekily as I greet her on Tuesday evening. Mind you, with her striking African print headwrap and one of those trendy rope necklaces over her dress, there’s no doubt the former eNCA broadcaster won’t look out of place on this page.
We’re standing outside Exclusive Books in trendy Rosebank Mall, Joburg, and in front of us are rows and rows of book lovers eager to hear all about the book by Jeremy Maggs, Iman’s former TV “husband” of seven years.
Called Win!, this is a compendium of inspiring interviews with 20 successful South Africans and, like the dutiful former smallscreen spouse, the PowerFM host has agreed to be mistress of ceremonies for the occasion. When proceedings start, Jeremy jokes that besides being reunited with his ex-NewsNight co-host — and the chance to travel the breadth of the land to chat to his subjects — his reason for writing the book was the life-size cardboard cutout of himself that you are bound to spot next time you step into a book store across the country.
No doubt, though, that Lynne “denial” Brown and “delinquent” Anoj Singh would have hoped that the night’s guest of honour was but a mute cardboard cutout when they were grilled at the Eskom inquiry in parly.
Yes, I am talking about one of the book’s successful subjects, Pravin Gordhan.
As the man who can list Finance Min x 2 on his CV enters, we all spontaneously rise to our feet, but when Jeremy calls him a rock star he is quick to shake his head.
“I can’t rock for the life of me. We do what we have to do,” says Prav.
Regardless, the function quickly becomes an evening with Pravin, with Iman expressing disbelief that the former SARS boss admits in the book that he relaxes by flicking through TV news channels.
And when the floor is opened to questions, it doesn’t take long for this paper’s hotshot political scribe, Ranjeni Munusamy, to probe: “What is the difference between a recall and a leadership transition? And when are we likely to have one?” — to claps from the audience.
“Probably very little,” answers Pravin, and ever the cautious one, his response to the second part of Ranjeni’s query is: “That’s the question that all of us are waiting to see: how much maturity there is going to be in the process, that puts the country first, which ensures that the wellbeing of 55 million people stands above any other consideration . . .”
You’ll want to know who else is featured in the book and, besides Pravin, you can learn more about folk like Discovery founder Adrian Gore, leading political light Cheryl Carolus and veteran Springbok wing Bryan Habana.
Also in attendance I spot former SARS spokesman Adrian Lackay and two others in the book — Gift of the Givers’ Imtiaz Sooliman and Ludwick Marishane, the bright spark behind an invention sure to be of interest to many Capetonians, the world’s first waterless bath gel.
Later I introduce myself to Ludwick and ask the lanky inventor to pose for a pic with eNCA reporter Karyn Maughan, who is wearing a colourful coat-dress from local fashion emporium The Space.
“Oh wow, her brother lectured me at UCT,” exclaims Ludwick. “He’s easily one of the best accounting lecturers, in my opinion.”
You’ll want to know about what we ate and drank, but in typical book launch style there was nothing to write home about — although who can complain when we left with plenty of Pravin food for thought anyway.