By: Natasha Archary
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan was shown the door at a public lecture that was held at Wits University on Thursday night.
Students disrupted the lecture chanting, ‘Pravin must go!’, when Gordhan failed to answer their questions on the current electricity crisis in the country.
Gordhan used State Capture as his trump card yet again, and did not take accountability for the crumbling house of cards that is the state-owned entity.
Loadshedding continue to plague the country, and rolling blackouts have become the norm for South Africans who have put up with Stage 6 for most of June.
Blackouts have been the only consistent thing about Eskom throughout winter and the Wits students who ruffled Gordhan have echoed the public’s sentiments.
“There’s huge contest between those who think State Capture was right, that corruption was acceptable. That abusing public resources can be defended. The question is how to strengthen our democracy and not allow these forces to weaken our democracy.”
Pravin Gordhan using State Capture as his trump card to avoid answering questions on the power crisis
The Wits students challenged Gordhan’s narrative and called him out for the myriad excuses that both him and Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter continue to feed the public.
“You say that this has been a problem for 10 years, 9 of those years you were Minister of Finance. You were in charge of the budget, you were responsible for dispensing the budget and you are therefore responsible for what happened to that money that disappeared from Eskom. But you exonerate yourself by giving a feeble excuse, ‘I didn’t know what was going on.'”
One of the Wits University students called Pravin Gordhan out on his excuses
As Jacob Zuma’s Finance Minister, Gordhan denied being privy to more than R500 billion which was lost in State Capture.
What followed were screaming matches between Pravin and the students who started chanting, ‘Pravin must go!’
Gordhan was the second Minister who got into a public screaming match, as Bheki Cele was also pushed into a corner by Action Society leader Ian Cameron earlier this week.
Cele reacted in much the same way as Gordhan did by evading questions.
Earlier on Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa was also met with angry COSATU members in Rustenberg who refused to listen to more empty promises by the president.
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