EFF gladly welcomes Pravin Gordhan’s retirement

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has welcomed the retirement of Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan.

The Department of Public Enterprises confirmed on Friday, 8 March, that Gordhan will retire from politics after the 2024 elections.

EFF WELCOMES PRAVIN GORDHAN’S RETIREMENT

Following the announcement, the EFF said Pravin Gordhan’s retirement comes after he left a trail of destruction in South Africa’s strategic state-owned companies.

The party said South Africa’s strategic state-owned companies, essential to any effort to re-industrialise, lie in ruins because of Gordhan.

“He spent the better part of his deployment at the DPE trying to dismantle the state electricity utility company into separate entities to hand over electricity generation to the private sector.

“Since 2018, South Africa has witnessed high levels of electricity blackouts and interruptions because there was a deliberate effort to bring in independent power producers with their exorbitant prices,” the Red Berets said.

SABOTAGE PAVING THE WAY FOR PRIVATISATION?

Also, the EFF said that they welcome the expansion of the aviation industry. However, it’s regrettable that this came at the cost of South African Airways (SAA) under Gordhan’s management.

The biggest concern is the emergence of new airlines largely stemming from SAA’s collapse, which Gordhan facilitated, as many of these airlines emerged during SAA’s complete shutdown.

To add salt to the wound, other entities such as South African Express, Mango, SAFCOL, and Alexkor are merely a former shadow of themselves as Gordhan has successfully reduced them to broken institutions to pave the way for privatisation.

“Without a dependable and affordable port and rail system and energy supply, South Africa cannot re-industrialise, create jobs, or grow the economy needed to address unemployment, poverty, and inequality issues.

“This will remain Gordhan’s legacy, something for which he will be remembered, and a lesson on the high cost of deliberately collapsing strategic state-owned companies in pursuit of privatisation,” the party added.

UNION OVERJOYED

Meanwhile, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) labelled Gordhan as the worst Public Enterprises Minister and said it is overjoyed that he is planning to retire.

“We cannot wait for Pravin Gordhan to leave; as Numsa, we volunteer to help him pack his bags. It is an absolute pity that he cannot leave sooner,” Numsa spokesperson Phakamile Majola-Hlubi said.