SARS must be rebuilt to its level under Gordhan's leadership - Trevor Manuel
Former Finance Minister Trevor Manuel has described the late Pravin Gordhan as a committed commissioner of the South African Revenue Service (SARS).
Gordhan passed away on September 13 after a brief battle with cancer.
He served as the SARS Commissioner from 2009 until 2019.
His recent and last ministerial position was as the Minister of Public Enterprises from February 2018 until June 2024.
Manuel spoke during the memorial service held by the revenue service in honour of Gordhan on Monday.
“One of the hallmarks of his activism was his curiosity. PG led an understanding that we must be able to triangulate information, it was such strong pressure values. Values between theft and democracy, value about benefit for some and democracy for all.
“SARS must be rebuilt to the level it had attained under his leadership. It’s never too late to envision and create the democracy that was dreamt of and felt in those lonely nights in solitary confinement by Pravin.
The former finance minister said Gordhan continued to fight for the poor to be treated fairly even though that came at a cost.
“It was his curiosity that gave rise to the investigations and as they proceeded it brought in direct conflict with the criminal networks and then criminal networks then needed to do other things including fake intelligence.
“So, the idea of the rouge intelligence unit was born. But what they described as a rouge intelligence unit was merely SARS extending its work and saying if we want people to pay tax, there must be a sense of fairness across the board.
“That in many ways was the beginning of the onslaught against Pravin, the beginning of the endeavour to dismantle the Revenue Service, the beginning to dismantle friendships.
Governor of the South African Reserve Bank, Lestja Kganyago, described Gordhan as a man who served with love.
“If you are a public servant, you cannot serve people you don’t love, and I can stand here today without fear of any contradiction to say Pravin loved his people and that is why he could serve them with so much dedication and commitment”.
Meanwhile, the current commissioner of the Revenue Service Edward Kieswetter described Gordhan as an activist for the improvement of the lives of young people.
“PG was intolerant of mediocrity and unequivocally committed to excellence and honest hard work. Yet, he believed in creating opportunities for young people to demonstrate their leadership skills”.
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