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Pravin & Tito — passing of a generation that cared about people and South Africa

Pravin & Tito — passing of a generation that cared about people and South Africa
Stephen Grootes
By Stephen Grootes
14 Oct 2024
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The deaths of former Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni and former finance minister Pravin Gordhan (as I think both would like to be remembered) mark the beginning of the end of an era. Both will be remembered for their honesty and for always being prepared to share their views. Their passing denotes a change in the way our politics is conducted, with mass meetings being replaced by Instagram.

While many have memories of Tito Mboweni and Pravin Gordhan, for this reporter several stand out.

Mboweni was intensely interested in people; he wanted to know how you were and what you thought.

When he was the governor of the SA Reserve Bank he was passionate about talk radio in general and Radio 702 in particular. Once, at an event in the Vaal, this reporter arrived to record his presentation, waved to him and disappeared into the back to sort out a sound feed.

When it was his turn to speak, Mboweni refused to start until I had been produced. He wanted “proof of life” before beginning his speech.

He was happy to phone from time to time just to gossip. It was during one of these conversations, on 8 December 2015, that we discussed growing rumours that then President Jacob Zuma was going to remove Nhlanhla Nene as finance minister.

Mboweni ended the conversation saying it would be a disaster if Zuma did this.

Three hours later, this disaster occurred. Mboweni did not say much in public during that time, but I’ve always wondered what he did in those days that led to Des van Rooyen being removed after becoming a “Weekend Special”.

The person who succeeded Van Rooyen, Gordhan, was a man of deep honesty.

It was this honesty and the extreme probity that he symbolised that became the rock on which Zuma’s plans were dashed.

It is tempting to state that one of the differences between the generation of Mboweni and Gordhan and the current crop of ANC politicians is corruption.

Gordhan and Mboweni never entered politics just to improve their own lives. They did not make decisions in government for themselves.

This reflected their personal histories in the fight for liberation from apartheid, albeit from different starting points in our society.

They were part of a generation that wanted to end apartheid and improve the lives of the majority of South Africans. It was not about personal advancement.

Zuma was older than both of them (while he was seven years older than Gordhan it was one of the ironies of that contested period from 2016-2018 that they shared a birthday) and many times made decisions that benefited him and advanced his agenda.

Modest lives


Despite the important roles that Gordhan and Mboweni played in our society, both lived relatively modest lives. 

Gordhan had a Lexus when he was in government, while almost all of his Cabinet colleagues had German-made cars.

Mboweni demonstrated that he enjoyed finding new ways to cook the cheapest form of protein.

Both would have refused to ever be seen in a Mercedes-Benz G-Class, never mind campaign in one, as ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula did this year.

Both would have found it difficult to read that people could be appointed to the board of Joburg Water without suitable qualifications.

They would have seen this as a reflection of how the culture of our politics has changed and now appears to be much more personal and about extraction.

That said, this has been a long process (going back to at least Kgalema Motlanthe’s famous quote in 2007 that the “rot is across the board”), and both were influential in our society during that period.

Things are different today…


Mboweni and Gordhan were from a generation of ANC politicians who conducted their politics through branch meetings and on-the-ground organisation.

In the days after Gordhan’s death, his organisational talents were lauded.

Mboweni, forced into exile at a young age, was also a part of this. The fact he changed his views from being on the left of ANC debates about economic policy towards a more centrist stance (with a strong belief in targeting inflation) was probably the result of face-to-face discussions.

His insistence on following this policy would also have been made forcefully to people in personal discussions.

Much has changed.

Campaigns are run on WhatsApp groups; they are about organising people who agree with you rather than about changing minds.

Tied to that is the rise of social media, which now sees Cabinet ministers getting involved in personal spats in public.

While Mboweni messed around on Twitter, it was never to settle scores or personal grievances. Instead, it was to celebrate and include others in the enjoyment (or to commiserate the results) of his cooking. 

Both Mboweni and Gordhan campaigned to change minds in big halls and at small meetings, rather than simply making comments and preaching to the converted on social media.

They were from an era in which politicians did not conduct personal campaigns.

They may have been ambitious, but the claim that ANC leaders did not campaign for their personal interests was truer then than it is now.

Now it appears that leaders and politicians compete to see who gets more time in the media.

While this is a reflection of how our politics has changed, and how the English-language broadcast media has become more influential, it is also about ego.

Gordhan and Mboweni fought for what they believed in. They did this with honesty and consistency. They did not expect everyone to agree with them (and in Mboweni’s case he would have been disappointed if they did).

They did not do this in an underhand way. If you were in a fight with them, you knew it. They were upfront about it, there was no duplicity.

Despite both having formally retired from active leadership roles, they spoke up when they saw things they did not like.

We are all the poorer for their passing and the passing of others of their generation. DM

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