Siyabonga Sithole
Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan has condemned the "unruly behaviour" of Wits students after some of the students booed and heckled him on Thursday.
The minister was invited by the institution to give a lecture on the reforms of SOEs, but the students had other plans as they made it difficult for Gordhan to deliver his message.
'Pravin Must Go. Pravin Must Go'...You stole money from Eskom, 'chanted Wits student during a meeting addressed by the minister of state enterprises Pravin Gordhan, who was booed and heckled midway through his address in a video that has gone viral on social media.
This is after the minister accused some in the audience of wanting corruption to continue, saying:"You are the people I am talking about. You are the people that want corruption to continue. All of you, you speak the same language. You are not going to intimidate us. Don't shout. What are you going to do? the minister said amid jeers from the students.
It was a difficult outing for Gordhan as students accused him of being complicit in collapsing Eskom and other state-owned entities, with students continuing to shout and ask difficult questions.
One of the students said:"You have given us unending load shedding. Chairperson, keep quiet. You are the prime minister, and here we are speaking about South African issues. This is the minister of South Africa, and he is not the minister of Wits," said the student.
Another student said Gordhan was part of the same nine wasted years under former president Jacob Zuma and did not resign when things went wrong.
"We are not resolving the issues at hand. Minister, you sat there in the 10 wasted years, and nine of those, you were minister of finance. You were responsible for the budget. You were responsible for disbursing the budget, and you were responsible, therefore, for ensuring that money was spent wisely, but there were cracks in between. You exonerate yourself from that, and you say, as Pravin Gordhan, I did not know anything was going wrong. You did not even resign to show that something was wrong, "the student said.
In a statement issued following this incident, Gordhan says he will not be intimidated by a clique that was sent to disrupt him.
" We condemn, in the strongest terms, the unruly behaviour of a small clique who were hell-bent on disrupting the public lecture to mark Wits centenary celebrations.
" The conduct by the disrupters posing as guests by the Wits School of Governance, one of the country's prestigious institutions which delivers intellectuals and conducts research which is invaluable to the reforms being undertaken by government," the minster says.