The ANC, including its youth league and provincial structures, paid tribute to former finance minister Pravin Gordhan, who died on Friday, describing him as a pioneer of local government and clean governance in spite of his “cabal” associations.
Speaking from outside Gordhan’s home, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said Gordhan would be hated by “state capturers“ and those who were corrupt, but those who stood firm on the truth would celebrate and honour him for his contribution to a free South Africa.
“We are here to celebrate a giant and a hero of our people. As the ANC, we have committed ourselves that we will participate in the discourse about the life of this giant. We are here today as a movement to tell family you are not alone. He was a stalwart and a veteran to the end ... We are not here to debate haters because we know that PG’s history and life is celebrated by many people,” Mbalula said.
His tribute comes against a backdrop of mixed and divisive views on Gordhan’s achievements, following the announcement that he had lost a battle to cancer earlier on Friday. These views had mainly to do with his contribution to and management of the country’s state-owned enterprises, which Gordhan oversaw as Public Enterprises Minister from 2018 up until his decision to resign after the elections in May this year.
In 2019, then EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu, who has since joined the uMkhonto weSizwe Party, accused Gordhan of leading a “cabal” that had exerted undue influence over the Mass Democratic Movement (MDM) back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Shivambu argued that the “cabal” still existed. His claim was based on a 1990 document in the O’Malley Archives, titled the “Report of the Commission on the Cabal”.
The report details some of the key figures in the cabal with Gordhan, and states he was among those who had infiltrated the MDM to further a “factional” agenda.
According to the document: “We took cognisance of the fact that the problem of the Cabal and factionalism had previously been identified by both the UDM and the ANC.
“Preliminary investigations and enquiries by the ANC and UDF followed up by talks with those comrades ridiculed, isolated and discredited by the Cabal, has led to the following person being identified as former or current members and supporters of the cabal.”
The document further alleged that those involved “manipulate strategy, lack democratic practices and stifle free and open debate”, and that it, the cabal, “targeted black [African] members“.
Attempts to get the ANC to comment on Gordhan’s alleged association with the “cabal” were unsuccessful at the time of going to print.
The EFF said Gordhan was part of a divisive force within the ANC as early as the 1980s.
According to the party: “His rise within the ANC ranks led to his appointment as the minister of finance in 2009, under President Jacob Zuma, a position he held until 2019, and then again from 2015 to 2017, after briefly stepping down. However, Gordhan had already been pointed out earlier for his destructive role in the struggle for liberation when he was named by the ANC president OR Tambo.
“The cabal was notorious for the prosecution of Mama Winnie Mandela, which was later rejected by our people. Later on, Gordhan also admitted to the formation of the notorious rogue unit within Sars, which terrorised political rivals on behalf of white monopoly capital and which commander in chief Julius Malema was a target of,” the party said.
The Star