Gordhan was a hard worker: Mkhize
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Former Health Minister and African National Congress (ANC) Treasurer-General Zweli Mkhize has paid tribute to the late former Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan for his role in building democracy in South Africa.
Gordhan passed away in a Johannesburg Hospital on Friday after battling cancer.
Mkhize was speaking on the sidelines of the Reed Dance ceremony at Ingwavuma at the weekend.
He said through his activism, Gordhan helped strengthen the idea that black people, Indians and coloureds shared the same struggle.
Mkhize says, “We started working with him when we were students and he was already at work in the hospital. We were part of the underground movement, we were part of the activism that went out to fight against the collaboration with the apartheid system.”
He says, “The whole programme of anti-SAIC (South African Indian Congress), which was fighting separate parliaments for Indians, for Coloureds and going all-out to build community civic bodies, Durban Housing Action Committee; bringing communities together.”
Mkhize believes one should focus on Gordhan’s positive contributions in public service, rather than the controversies he was embroiled in amid his opposition to state capture.
“But he had a boldness to face up to dealing with issues where he was convinced this was correct and certainly I must say that having worked with him, he was a hard worker who understood what needed to be done.”
