Pravin Gordhan

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Pravin Gordhan (2015)

Pravin Jamnadas Gordhan (born April 12, 1949 in Durban ) is a South African politician . He was Finance Minister from 2009 to 2014 and held this office again from December 2015 to March 2017. Since the end of February 2018, he has been Minister of Public Enterprises .

Life

Gordhan comes from a family of Indian descent . His parents were Rumbha and Jamnadas Gordhan and he grew up with three other siblings. He first attended the Surat Hindu State Aided School and then moved to Sastri College , where he completed his Matric in 1967 . Already in his late school years he developed an awareness of the deficit human rights situation in his hometown.

Since 1967 Gordhan studied pharmacy at the University of Durban-Westville and graduated in 1973 with a Bachelor of Pharmacy . Since 1971 he has been involved in the Student's Representative Council (SRC), which, with his participation, received its own statute. After completing his studies, he worked as a pharmacist at King Edward VIII Hospital in Durban between 1974 and 1981 . After establishing contacts with members of the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) from 1971 to 1972 , he was elected to its executive council in 1974. He lost his job as a pharmacist because of his political commitment and as a result of a related imprisonment at the instigation of the Natal Provicial Administration . After his release in May 1982 he had to struggle with the official ban , which was in effect until June 1983. On the basis of this, he was forbidden to enter the city center of Durban. During this time he worked as a pharmacist's representative.

During this time he made the acquaintance of former political prisoners, such as Mandla Judson Kuzwayo, Jacob Zuma and Mac Maharaj , who had previously been imprisoned on Robben Island . On March 20, 1980, the Durban Housing Action Committee was formed from several activist groups , for which he was elected secretary. Dissatisfaction with living conditions in Durban grew strongly at this time and there were several mass demonstrations. A decisive backlash was a six-week boycott of rent payments, which forced the then Durban City Council to negotiate with the actors. During this time Gordhan also supported the campaigns launched by the Release Mandela Committee in his city . In 1981 he joined the protest actions against the election of the South African Indian Council , created by the apartheid government , which from the beginning of its existence was viewed as a reprehensible collaboration institution and could only count on little support from the mostly poor Indian population. After the human rights activist Griffiths Mxenge was murdered by employees of the Vlakplaas in November 1981 , Gordhan took part in the preparations for the funeral and in drafting a leaflet on the matter. On November 27, a day after the funeral, he and other participants were arrested and according to section 6 of the Terrorism Act ( Act No. 83/1967 ) in solitary confinement taken.

Then, from 1984, Gordhan worked for the Natal Indian Congress as a full-time volunteer for the campaign against the new three-chamber parliament in South Africa. In 1985 he opened his own pharmacy, but had to go underground in mid-1986 because of his involvement in the anti-three-chamber parliament campaign and the impending state of emergency in the country . He remained there until his imprisonment on July 12, 1990 under the Internal Security Act . In the meantime, Gordhan had developed into an organizational key person for the domestic ANC communication network.

Gordhan's underground activity spanned a long period of political engagement. He was an executive member of the Natal Indian Congress from 1974 to 1990 and a member of the African National Congress (ANC) between 1977 and 1990 . Also in the 1970s he began to participate in the South African Communist Party . In Durban, Gordhan campaigned for the democratization of the social environment. In this role, he served as vice chairman of the civil rights organization Southern Natal Civic Association .

During the period of upheaval and the negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa, Gordhan was involved in numerous organizations and institutions and was, among other things, chairman of the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) between 1991 and 1994 and co-chairman of the multi-party conference in Johannesburg to end it in 1993 apartheid and subsequently from 1993 to 1994 co-chair of the transitional executive council to monitor and organize the change of power.

In the first free elections in 1994, he was elected as a candidate of the ANC for a member of the National Assembly and was a member of this until 1998. During this time he was also a member of the University Council of the University of Durban-Westville between 1995 and 1997 . He was also chairman of the Constitutional Committee of the National Assembly from 1996 to 1998.

After leaving Parliament, he was in 1998, first deputy head ( Deputy Commissioner ) and 1999 Head ( Commissioner ) of the South African Revenue Service South African Revenue Services (SARS). He held this position for ten years until 2009, during which time he was also Chairman of the World Customs Organization (WCO) between 2000 and 2006 .

In March 2009, Gordhan completed his dissertation at the Free State Central University of Technology with a DTech ( Doctor of Technology ) in Business Administration .

Minister in the Zuma cabinet

Gordhan during the WEF 2012

After Jacob Zuma was elected as the new President of South Africa , Gordhan was appointed Finance Minister in the Zuma cabinet on May 10, 2009 . In this role he succeeded Trevor Manuel , who in turn became a minister in the presidential administration with responsibility for the National Planning Commission.

While bringing in the household, Gordhan was attacked by the then chairman of the ANC Youth League , Julius Malema . He accused him of violating party politics in budget planning and of not taking the needs of children and young people into sufficient account. The draft budget and the plans of Gordhan received the support and backing of the National Executive Council of the ANC and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the largest trade union umbrella organization in South Africa. In 2014, after the parliamentary elections, he was replaced as finance minister by Nhlanhla Nene . He received a post in the new cabinet as Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (for example: "Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs ").

On December 13, 2015, Gordhan was again Minister of Finance. He swapped portfolio with David van Rooyen , who had been appointed just four days earlier.

In February 2016, Gordhan was accused by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), also Hawks , a unit of the South African Police Service , of having acted illegally by setting up an undercover unit in SARS in 2007. Gordhan denied the allegations. In August 2016, he was summoned for questioning. The South African financial markets reacted negatively. Gordhan pursued a stabilization course and thus stood in contrast to the line of President Zuma, who, among other things, strove to privatize state-owned companies and is seen as the author of the police persecution of Gordhan. On October 11, 2016, he was charged by a prosecutor, and the charges were dropped 20 days later.

Dismissal and return to the cabinet

Zuma dismissed Gordhan on March 31, 2017 as part of a cabinet reshuffle along with eight other ministers and numerous deputy ministers. He was replaced by the previous Minister of the Interior, Malusi Gigaba . A connection with the corruption allegations against Zuma was suspected. Gordhan was seen by many investors as a guarantor of stability for the country's economy. The South African currency, the rand , therefore lost value after his dismissal became known. On 26 February 2018, the newly elected him president took Cyril Ramaphosa as minister of state enterprises ( Minister of Public Enterprises ) in his cabinet. In this position he is also a member of the Ramaphosa II cabinet formed in 2019 .

In July 2019, Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane also accused him of having set up an illegal undercover unit within SARS during his time as finance minister. She demanded a corresponding response from Ramaphosa within 30 days. Gordhan called the charges flawed.

Honors

Web links

  • Entry in Who's Who Southern Africa (English; archive version from 2017)
  • Entry in afdevinfo.com

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Rand cheers return of Pravin Gordhan. Fin24, December 13, 2015.
  2. ↑ Pravin Gordhan back in cabinet after being sacked by Zuma. ewn.co.za on February 26, 2018, accessed February 26, 2018
  3. ↑ a b c d e Shelag Gastrow: Who's Who in South African Politics. Number 5 . Johannesburg 1995, pp. 81-86
  4. ^ A b c South African History Online: Pravin Jamnadas Gordhan . on www.sahistory.org.za (English)
  5. ^ Parliamentary Monitoring Group: Mr Pravin Gordhan . on www.pa.org.za (English)
  6. ↑ See African trade unions back finance minister Gordhan . In: Reuters , March 15, 2010.
    Malema won't be punished - for now . In: News24, March 14, 2012
  7. ^ Cabinet list of May 25, 2014 ( Memento of January 17, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (English).
  8. ↑ Gordhan answers Hawks' questions about SARS “rogue unit”. bdlive.co.za from March 30, 2016 (English), accessed on August 29, 2016
  9. ^ Ministerial subpoena encroaches on South Africa's market. ntv.de from August 24, 2016, accessed on August 29, 2016
  10. ↑ South African finance minister may be charged for graft as Gupta family quits. Deutsche Welle from August 28, 2016, accessed on August 29, 2016
  11. ^ New move against Gordhan suggests South Africa's laws are under threat. Mail & Guardian of August 26, 2016 (English), accessed August 30, 2016
  12. ↑ Abruptly dropped charges against minister a fresh defeat for Zuma. theglobeandmail.com, October 31, 2016, accessed November 15, 2016
  13. ^ South Africa: President dismisses popular finance minister. Handelsblatt dated March 31, 2017, accessed on March 31, 2017
  14. ↑ South Africa's graft watchdog tells Ramaphosa to discipline Pravin Gordhan. africanews.com, July 6, 2019, accessed July 6, 2019
  15. ↑ Gordhan rubbishes public protectors findings. enca.com from July 5, 2019 (English), accessed on July 6, 2019
personal data
SURNAME Gordhan, Pravin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gordhan, Pravin Jamnadas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African politician
DATE OF BIRTH April 12, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Durban