A was is brewing among political leaders in South Africa which led us to the question, who is Pravin Gordhan? And why was he called a dangerous man? Gordhan was minister of finance/minister of cooperative governance in South Africa for almost 10 years until his appointed tenure expired in 2017 when he was outthrown by his then-boss Jacob Zuma. Pravin Jamnadas Gordhan has been politically involved in leading (or declining?) South Africa for over 20 years. Although South-Africa-Born and educated, he is of Indian descent and married to an Indian, Vanitha Raju. Growing up in South Africa, Gordhan attended Sastri College, then an all-Indian-boys high school situated in Durban, South Africa, now open to non-Indians. Today, Gordhan has a strong hold in South Africa’s political climate and at 70 years old, seems to not want to relinquish power anytime soon. In more recent news, he was surprisingly announced as minister of public enterprises in 2018 under new president Cyril Ramaphosa, tasked with managing all South African government-owned companies such as Eskom, debt-laden South African Airways and Denel.
Now, on to why Julius Malema insists that Gordhan is dangerous; the South African Revenue Services (SARS) is a government entity established in 1997 responsible for growing the systematic collection of tax revenue for the state and for ensuring compliance with all tax laws. SARS has been well implemented and well received by South Africans but many are displeased with the post-collection phase of SARS. Are taxes going into national development or enriching a few? In 2016, Gordhan was under prosecution for creating a “rogue unit” at SARS in 2007 while he was commissioner for SARS. This case was eventually dropped after Big 4 Audit firm, KPMG South Africa, withdraw their audit report. Furthermore, in more recent matters, Over 2 Billion Rands was siphoned from VBS Mutual Bank as reported by The Reserve Bank of South Africa. Gordhan and Malema are at war over this corruption scandal with allegations flying in every direction. Gordon said “The most dangerous man here is Pravin Gordhan and we are on his case… let’s win each other through the political power of persuasion, not blackmail, not intimidation.”
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