TRIBUTE TO THE LATE FORMER MINISTER PRAVIN GORDHAN
It is with much sorrow that my wife, Gugu, and I learnt of the passing of our friend and comrade, the late Former Minister Pravin Gordhan this morning. This moment of solemn sadness has struck us where it hurts the most. On behalf of my family and the entire Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation, we offer our heartfelt sympathy and condolences to his dear wife Vanitha, and his daughters, Anisha and Priyesha.
Comrade Pravin Gordhan dedicated his life to the principles of humanity, social justice, and freedom. His absence leaves a profound void for all those who aspire to sincere activism and a collective vision for public good.
Throughout his life, marked by numerous public political battles, he conducted himself with solid conviction, embodying a philosophical belief in the power of the intellectual and compassionate approaches to combat oppression, corruption, and injustice. He was a fiercely independent intellectual, of critical spirit, not succumbing to reactionary pressures including physical and psychological torture in detention, but steadfastly refusing to be browbeaten into submission through attacks from faceless narrow-minded chauvinists.
From his work in the 1970s with the Natal Indian Congress, the African National Congress, and then the South African Communist Party, Comrade Pravin spent his adult life overcoming adversity. In mobilising for these organisations underground, like a mole he was patient, alert and precise in spreading the revolutionary word.
It is in this crucible of the struggle that his character was formed and shaped into a stickler for punctuality, detail, accountability, hard work and reliability. And, this earned him the ire of laggards, windbags and rogues, those who do nothing, but do nothing, and who were not prepared to be held accountable.
Comrade Pravin understood that leading is fairly straightforward when the challenges are visible and well-defined, and that these are the situations where rewards are often evident but infrequent. Pravin had the rare skill to guide through uncertainty, constantly reviewing the layered complexities and knowing which steps to take. A lot of the real work he did went unseen and unpraised.
No doubt, as the many tributes pour in, most of them will be true and others may be over-effusive which may have caused embarrassment for Comrade Pravin’s sense of modesty and privacy.
Attitudes toward remembering and honouring the dead, however, have evolved over time and today instead of revering silence and respect, there’s a trend on the part of literary gutter-scrapers to delve into the personal and painful, with intimate details splashed repeatedly on all sorts of social media platforms and pages, just to traduce the good name of the departed.
The hasty posthumous disclosure of hearsay and private sentiments have a sour tendency to stir up further discomfort for the living, and would probably be better dealt with had the deceased been able to speak for themselves, or if the living had maintained more silence and solemnity.
Pravin was a man of steel and was able to withstand all trials and tribulations, and remained committed to the cause where others disintegrated into cowardice and treachery.
As he leaves us he will continue to live in our hearts.
To the family of the late Comrade Pravin Gordhan, even though we may not quite fully understand the pain of your loss, we ask you to take solace in the knowledge that we too share your grief and condole with you.
