Why finance minister Pravin Gordhan has received the public’s vote.

An incident at the Budget Speech dinner, held by Old Mutual and Nedbank on the night of the National Budget address, epitomised for me the change that has happened in our country over the last few weeks.

Attending the event last year, the then relatively new finance minister Nhlanhla Nene, who had just given his maiden budget address, was joined by an unusually large gaggle of ministers. As guests at the dinner, we were asked to stand as the ministers and their entourage entered. There was a quiet murmuring in the room as people rose, uncomfortable with this protocol for a group of ministers (Nene aside) in whom most had lost confidence and respect. I later discovered that many of the ministers present that evening had not actually been invited and had arrived unexpectedly, with entourage in tow, upsetting the seating arrangements.

Fast forward a year later to Wednesday 24 February 2016. As finance minister Gordhan entered with his small group of Treasury officials, he waived protocol, requesting the guests not to stand. Yet, later when he stood to address the audience every person in the room stood to applaud. Respect is earned, not demanded.

I first interviewed Gordhan when he was the SARS Commissioner back in 2003. He told me about the Swedish tax system where individuals received a pre-populated tax return which could be completed in minutes. He planned on introducing the system to South African within five years – he did it in three.

Passionate about service delivery

He was extremely passionate about service delivery and had an acute awareness of the fact that he had a responsibility to the taxpayers of the country who effectively finance the government. This sense of responsibility followed him through to his years as finance minister and I always believed that his reassignment to minister of co-operative governance, where he oversaw local government and municipalities, was not for him a demotion but actually a dream job. Here he could really make a difference when it came to delivery. I suspect he took his recalling as Finance Minister as an act of duty to his country rather than personal achievement.

Back in 2010, presenting his maiden Budget address, the newly appointed Finance Minister Gordhan did not cut the suave figure we had become used to with Trevor Manuel, who kept journalists on their toes with his witty, sharp comments and equally sharp suits. Gordhan appeared more of a plodding bureaucrat. It didn’t, however, take long for him to find his rhythm and voice, using every opportunity to remind government ministers that they were but caretakers of taxpayers’ money.

Perhaps I am reading too much between the lines, but knowing Gordhan’s commitment to taxpayers through his years at SARS, perhaps the decision not to hike personal tax or VAT was to prove to South Africans that government will spend their money wisely this year, before coming to ask for more.

Fierce determination

It was, however, a very different Gordhan who appeared at the press briefing on Wednesday morning. There was a greater sense of personal strength, an even greater determination to get government to do the right thing. He was applauded by journalists who acknowledged the difficult times he was facing.

In his Budget speech he reiterated the need to be resilient, committed and resourceful and one could sense there was a fire in his belly and a sense of determination. The extent to which he was possibly talking about himself, was revealed with the release on Friday of his statement around an enquiry by the Hawks into the time he served as SARS Commissioner.

“I can categorically state that the Hawks have no reason to “investigate” me,” he wrote and added that “there is a group of people that are not interested in the economic stability of this country and the welfare of its people. It seems they are interested in disrupting institutions and destroying reputations.”

Minister Gordhan revealed that he had indeed received a letter from the Hawks questioning him just days before he was to deliver possibly the most important Budget Speech in our country’s history. “I believe this was meant to intimidate and distract us from the work that we had to do to prepare the 2016 Budget,” he wrote.

All I can conclude is that whoever is behind these allegations and attack has possibly underestimated the support Gordhan has, both within and outside of government. He is possibly the only person most South Africans are united in supporting, and he knows it.