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Without Pravin Gordhan’s fightback and the media, 'SA could have become an autocratic banana republic'

Without Pravin Gordhan’s fightback and the media, 'SA could have become an autocratic banana republic'
DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA - SEPTEMBER 19: Mac Maharaj tribute at the Special Official Funeral (Category 2) of former Minister Pravin Gordhan at Durban International Convention Centre (ICC) on September 19, 2024 in Durban, South Africa. The former minister passed away in hospital last Friday, at the age of 75, following a period of illness. (Photo by Gallo Images/Siyabonga Sokhela)
Mac Maharaj
By Mac Maharaj
19 Sep 2024
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This is ANC veteran Mac Maharaj’s speech during the special official funeral of former public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan at the Durban International Convention Centre on 19 September 2024.

Mr President, all dignitaries present, comrades and friends, I would like to begin with two simple messages: 

The President of the Republic of South Africa, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa: thank you for unhesitatingly according to Pravin Gordhan an official state funeral. You read history correctly and appreciate the relevance of the model that PG is, even in present-day South Africa: incorruptible and driven by the goal of a South African nation at peace with itself. 

To his wife and comrade-in-arms Vanitha, his daughters Anisha and Priyesha and the larger Gordhan and Raju families: take solace from the outpouring of tributes from within South Africa and the international community. Take comfort from the knowledge that Pravin became larger than life because you stood by him, suffered with him, and gave him strength. You made it possible for him to write himself into what happened in our country, and what happens as South Africa journeys into the future. 

This is the occasion to recognise some hard truths: Without the exposures by the media and the fightback mounted by Pravin and his formidable team at Treasury – his deputy Mcebesi Jonas, Lungisa Fuzile and Ismail Momoniat, and at SARS Ivan Pillay, Pete Richer and Van Loggenberg – without them, our beloved country could have become a banana republic governed by an autocratic regime adorned with the fig leaf of a hollowed-out democracy. 

He was a man of steel forged in the furnace of struggle against a lawless system.

The corrupt hurled everything against PG. Neither the actions of the captured Public Protector, SARS, SAPS, the NPA, and the power of the Presidency to concoct fake intelligence to rubbish a person’s identity – neither that nor the abuse showered on him, shook him. Pravin remained steadfast. He found himself in a lonely place in the fightback against State Capture: within the ANC and the alliance a few, like Derek Hanekom, stood up. Some, who shared this concern, stayed silent. Others found free rein to defend the indefensible. 

Such an unenviable place is not unknown in humankind’s march to freedom. It inspired the Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, to write that “For my part and yours, we comply, we share our hopes and winters; and we have been wounded not only by mortal enemies but by mortal friends; that seemed all the more bitter”. 

But that did not deter Pravin. For he was a man of steel forged in the furnace of struggle against a lawless system whose world was defined by the colour of one’s skin. Torture in detention was one element in that furnace. Recalling his tortures in detention by one of his torturers, PG said: “I was quite determined that I wouldn’t tell him a damn thing, he could do what he liked. Those were moments when you had to decide: you either give in to his crap or you take an attitude which says you can do what you like. And if it’s the end of me, well, that’s bad luck, it’s the end of me.” 
Putting his life on the line was not a theoretical or abstract notion for PG.

The public had a glimpse of his fearlessness on TV during an incident in Parliament. PG was at the podium. A group of those who believe that their red tin hats made them powerful, rushed the platform. As parliamentary security sought to intercept them, PG stared them down, and urged the security: “Let them touch me.” He knew that if the tin hats did that, not only would they have totally discredited themselves, but that there was a fair chance that in democratic South Africa they may well have found themselves in orange uniforms for violating the sanctity of Parliament. 

Gordhan Maharaj Mac Maharaj delivers a tribute during the special official funeral of former minister Pravin Gordhan at the Durban International Convention Centre on 19 September 2024. (Photo: Gallo Images / Siyabonga Sokhela)



Putting his life on the line was not a theoretical or abstract notion for PG. What he called “the end of me” is something he lived with daily. In early 1989, while hunted by the Security Branch, he received a message from a trusted comrade, Dr Zubie Hamed, that a member of the Security Branch wanted to meet him. Was this a trap to arrest PG or was the cop wanting to share information with us? Our efforts to infiltrate the Security Branch were paying off through the work of Moe Shaik and his intelligence unit. We decided that PG should keep the appointment. The hunted would become the hunters. PG unhesitatingly agreed. But he had one request: Could we provide him with a Makarov pistol. He was determined that, if it was a trap, he would not go down without a fight. We denied him his request. We told him that an armed team would be unobtrusively positioned around the venue – the home of Dr Zubie and Prof Jerry Coovadia – to frustrate any attempt by the SB to arrest him. 
Let there be debate about his actions, but let’s ensure that this is based on facts, on evidence.

I share this incident today because that was Pravin: fearful of a trap, but fearless in putting his life on the line. I say this with the full knowledge that PG was a human being vested with weaknesses and frailties, like all of us. Let there be debate about his actions, but let’s ensure that this is based on facts, on evidence. We need that if our democracy is to flourish. Vigorous debate was the lifeblood of the ANC during the liberation struggle. It is also the essence of democracy. 

Read more tributes to Pravin Gordhan:

Pravin Gordhan was that rare thing — an honest politician, driven by a ‘higher purpose’

Brave, tenacious, committed to principle – a tribute to Pravin Gordhan

Pravin Gordhan was filled with compassion and took on the pain of the oppressed as his own (Part One)

Pravin Gordhan: The fight for clean government and his ‘arrogance’ (Part Two)

By 1970 it seemed that repression had silenced the people; that it was too hazardous to attempt to mobilise the masses. The late Mewa Ramgobin initiated the revival of the Natal Indian Congress, which had been immobilised but remained unbanned. The strikes in Durban-Pinetown in 1973 and the Soweto student uprising of 1976 widened that space. Soon the funerals of activists and leaders in the struggle became a rallying point to mobilise people. The slogan captured the moment: Don’t Mourn! Mobilise! PG refined it to cultivate grassroots mobilisation with the concept: Organise, Conscientise, Mobilise. 

I recall this concept because we are still grappling with bringing to book those involved in State Capture and with the challenge of rooting out corruption in both the public and private sectors. In order to succeed in removing this huge obstacle to creating a better life for all imbued with the spirit that we are one people, building one nation, we need, as Pravin would have it: that the ANC puts its house in order and renders itself fit for purpose; that state institutions are capacitated; that the media continue to shine their searchlight, and that civil society flourishes and continues to enforce accountability and participatory democracy. Organise, Conscientise and Mobilise. Make Democracy Deliver! Hamba kahle, comrade Pravin! Hamba kahle, Qhawe la maQhawe! DM

Mac Maharaj was imprisoned on Robben Island with Nelson Mandela. After the 1994 elections, he was appointed to Cabinet, where he served as transport minister until 1999. He returned to active service during the fifth government administration as special adviser and spokesperson to then president Jacob Zuma. Maharaj has retired from active politics.

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