Pravin Gordhan kicks the proverbial bucket

Pravin Gordhan served as a minister during the state capture years. But he will also be remembered for being among those who pushed back against its architects.

Gordhan passed away on Friday at the age of 75 after being hospitalised on Tuesday, following a short battle with cancer.

A pharmacist by profession, in the political arena, Pravin Gordhan was best known for leading key finance-related portfolios in government, starting at the tax office.

But it's also where the campaign to discredit his reputation began.

After being unceremoniously removed as finance minister in 2017, Gordhan invited South Africans to "join the dots" about the formation of a parallel state.

It's a phrase that he would become synonymous with in the ensuing years.

Whether his legacy will be that of a hero who put a stop to state capture will depend on which end of the political spectrum he's viewed from.

Known by many as a no-nonsense person, and one who didn't suffer fools, the on-again, off-again finance minister also held the portfolio of cooperative governance minister and finally public enterprises over his 50-year political career.

These positions also earned him many enemies, even from within his own party.

Reflecting on his career at the start of his retirement in June, Gordhan joked on EWN's Politricking with Tshidi Madia that he got all the tough jobs in government.

'JOIN THE DOTS'

Gordhan succeeded Trevor Manuel as the finance minister in 2009, just as the global recession was starting to be felt in South Africa.

After being re-appointed to head the Treasury in 2015, Gordhan came under fire from the Hawks the following year for an alleged rogue unit during his time as South African Revenue Services (SARS) commissioner.

On the eve of preparing to deliver a budget address in Parliament, the Hawks pounced on him, probing the alleged rogue unit established within the revenue service in 2007.

He would be fired by Former President Jacob Zuma in 2017, under the guise of a bogus intelligence report Gordhan would later put on display at a media conference, after being accused of meeting overseas businesspeople with the nefarious intention of discrediting Zuma.

Gordhan learnt he and his then-deputy, Mcebisi Jonas, were being sacked as the heads of the Treasury during an investor trip to London.

Relegated to the parliamentary backbenchers, Gordhan rallied those within the party to rail against the plundering of state resources, and he used various public platforms to encourage South Africans to "join the dots" about what was happening in the political realm.

It's a narrative he would take with him to the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture in 2018.

"So, I suppose late 2014, but mainly in 2015, these issues become clearer. But the final penny [dropped], and the connecting of the dots began after the harassment we were subjected to during 2016.

"I was supposed to be killed in the apartheid years, not a democratic era. What's this kind of thing happening? No answer. But that was the beginning of 15 months of hell."

Five years later, the Constitutional Court would put a stop to a long legal battle, dismissing an appeal by the Public Protector against her report into the so-called rogue unit.

Gordhan would continue to speak out about the effect state capture had on hollowing out state institutions until he retired in May at the helm of public enterprises.

A TERRIBLE JOB'

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) would lay a complaint against him with the Public Protector, attempt to physically block him from delivering a budget speech in Parliament, and use every occasion to denigrate his Indian heritage.

Taking on his final ministerial portfolio of cleaning up parastatals after state capture was another tough ask, with Gordhan saying it was never going to happen overnight.

"So, again a terrible job. Because when do I walk into public enterprises? When all the disclosures about state capture had happened, when the Zondo Commission is about to sit, and the Gupta email leaks had already happened."

In his final post, Gordhan would again come under attack for André de Ruyter's appointment as Eskom CEO, and for entering into private equity talks for South African Airways (SAA), a deal that eventually fell through in the final weeks of his tenure.

But through it all, Gordhan said he was undeterred by his critics.

"My main business is to do my work. If you want to malign me, go ahead and have some fun. It doesn't worry me at all. I don't lose any sleep over it, because I know it's nonsense."