The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has accused outgoing Minister of State Enterprises Pravin Gordhan of contributing to the collapse of the country’s leading state-owned enterprises (SOEs).
This comes after Gordhan announced his retirement from politics this weekend.
On Friday, the Department of Public Enterprises confirmed in a statement that Gordhan had “expressed his intention to retire from active politics” when the term of the current administration comes to an end following the elections.
Speaking to Newsroom Afrika, Gordhan denied collapsing SOEs, saying these were now in a better position than they were during the state capture era.
Gordhan was among more than 30 other MPs who announced their retirement from politics after the elections. These include Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Nosiviwe Mapisa Nqakula and others.
Gordhan said he is happy with the position of the country’s state entities.
“With the SOEs being in a slightly better position than they were during the state capture period and having brought in place a new management team and new generation of people who ill continue to build state capacity and the various institution, as well. Importantly, we have also have to teach them about our recent past and the dangers of corruption and state capture and that we should allow that to ever return to South Africa,” Gordhan said.
Reacting to his retirement, Numsa secretary-general, Irvin Jim in a statement said Gordhan’s “reign of terror: had contributed to the sale of SAA, collapse of Denel and other entities, as well as job losses. Jim said Gordhan should be held accountable for the damage he caused during his tenure as state enterprises minister.
“Gordhan has single-handedly contributed to hundreds of thousands of job losses during his tenure and the destruction of livelihoods. He has contributed to the country’s poor economic performance because of the destruction of SOEs,” Jim said.
Jim added that Numsa was delighted over Gordhan’s intention to step down after the elections, saying Gordhan was one of the worst-performing ministers to have occupied office since 2018.
“Numsa is overjoyed that Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, the worst minister since the advent of democracy, has decided to retire from politics. We cannot wait for him to leave, in fact, as Numsa we volunteer to help him pack his bags. It is an absolute pity that he cannot leave sooner.
“Just like the hit song by Miley Cyrus, Gordhan came in like a wrecking ball in 2018 and he has wrecked every single state-owned entity that he touched. We said in our previous statement that he has a ‘deadly Midas touch’ because everywhere he goes, SOE’s collapse and workers suffer. He claimed he was turning around SOEs. unfortunately, most of them are in ICU or have died because of his involvement. It is a painful irony that Gordhan once served as a member of the South African Communist Party Central Committee because his actions have been a relentless and brutal attack on workers and their families”, added Jim.
Meanwhile, The reason why Gordhan announced his retirement was that many within the ANC saw him as representative of the minority group in racial ethnic terms, political analyst Andre Duvenage told The Star on Sunday.
Duvenage said Gordhan was also a representative of what he called the “old guard”.
He said the Takatso deal was among the reasons for Gordhan’s decision to retire, adding that it was, however, not the final nail to his coffin.
“His constant conflict with Gwede Mantashe on many issues including Eskom was part of this. Already for the past year or two, there were strong indications that Gordhan was not considered as a favourable leader within the leadership of the ANC; he had conflict with many people,” added Duvenage.
“There are many things like said that played a role in his decision if you are functioning in an environment where corruption is endemic, and one would be implicated in some way.”
In terms of whether, Gordhan left a solid legacy, Duvenage said he wouldn’t rate him on a scale of excellence. He would rather rate him as an average minister.
Gordhan’s announcement comes amid the controversial sale of SAA to the Takatso Consortium which was concluded in 2021 for R51.
Recently, the minister has been under fire with members of the portfolio committee for wanting to keep several documents relating to the sale agreement secret.
In a move that seemed to irked majority of committee members, Gordhan proposed that MPs sign non-disclosure agreements.
The agreement would have forced MPs to keep mum about the information provided in a closed committee meeting and that it would also be omitted on the committee report.
The Star
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