By Michael Sutcliffe
I remember vividly the day in 1982 that an outstanding community activist Vish Supersad walked into my office in UKZN’s Planning Department asking me for help in analysing community-based surveys. That led to my meeting comrade Pravin (PG) and for the next 42 years I have laughed with him, occasionally fought with him, but in the end am so grateful for his friendship, comradeship, leadership and what he has done for our country’s liberation process.
From his student days, rebelling against apartheid education and the Broederbond teachers at University of Durban-Westville, to his lifetime of work to make our country a better place, and now to his passing on, we can only bow our heads and salute his life well lived.
The 1980s were very heady days as we all contributed in various ways to the four pillars of the liberation movement: mass mobilisation, building the underground, uMkhonto we Sizwe and our international campaigns. In all of those PG was involved.
We fought and won victories where the then City of Durban had illegally been overcharging poor people for water, and we forced the state to agree to the redevelopment of Cato Manor after hundreds of thousands of people had been forcibly removed under apartheid.
We got the Durban municipality to start spending some of its monies on informal settlements which were outside its apartheid jurisdiction.
And we lost battles such as in the mid-1980s when we tried to force the Broederbond administration of the University of Durban-Westville to host a meeting of the National Education Crisis Committee (NECC) bringing together students, parents and teachers from across the country. This refusal led to students being attacked as the conference was then held in an unsafe area.
Throughout these hundreds of local and national struggles Pravin played important leadership and facilitating roles alongside so many amazing local leaders like Jabu Sithole from the Joint Rent Action Committee to Cyril Ramaphosa of the National Union of Mineworkers, from community organisations and trades unions to the ANC alliance and beyond.
In the 1980s and 1990s as our movement for liberation was broadened, to be truly national and cutting across all social strata Pravin played not only a leadership role, but a very supportive one too.
As we moved into the 1990s negotiations, Pravin played a major role in helping to facilitate that process. His activism ensured that local government became entrenched in the constitution. He then chaired the political committee producing the White Paper on Local Government, which also saw the sad loss of an outstanding comrade Tshepiso Mashinini who chaired the working committee.
He then moved sideways becoming the Commissioner of SARS and working closely with comrade Trevor Manuel reformed that institution. They brought in many more taxpayers through getting the public to be impimpis and report on people they thought should be paying tax! Of course, even now when I submit my tax returns I treat it as a battle against PG.
Of course Pravin, throughout his life connected dots, and he became more public in the prelude to the state capture processes. There, he became an important activist fighting for integrity and capability, and against corruption, mismanagement and arrogance in government.
He continued with many governmental portfolios, also returning to local government as Minister, arguing strongly of the need to get Back to Basics (B2B). In many ways the strategies and the order in which he defined them, says much about the values that drove Pravin:
- Putting people and their concerns first;
- Supporting the delivery of municipal services to the right quality and standard;
- Promoting good governance, transparency and accountability;
- Ensuring sound financial management and accounting; and
- Building institutional resilience and administrative capability.
In all of this PG was not without his detractors, some who differed ideologically or around tactics, and others for reasons that only they know. All, though, if they knew him, would concede that he has made an immense contribution to our country. He himself, I know, welcomed differences and was prepared to engage.
I remember one such moment in the early 1990s when there had been some tension in the movement and he, comrade Sbu Ndebele and I got talking, rather frankly, around how power struggles were diverting us all from the central task of liberation.
The three of us agreed that that needed to be addressed, and looking back, it still needs to be addressed, particularly by men in leadership positions.
I remember too, how much he cared about the families of comrades who were being targeted in the struggle. We have lost so many, particularly young, brilliant activists whose only crimes are that they are fighting for integrity and a focus on addressing inequality, poverty and unemployment. He always asked questions about how our families were.
I am sorry that the suddenness of his passing means that his experiences could not be translated into contributions towards educational programmes on what needs to be done and what strategies and tactics are needed to advance us as a country and continent.
But I have no doubt that PG’s only wish would be that such a task is for all of us.
* Dr Michael Sutcliffe is a director of City Insight and a former activist.
IOL OPINION