Hundreds of people are attending the memorial service for veteran Cabinet member and struggle stalwart Pravin Gordhan in Durban.
75-year-old Gordhan will be laid to rest in a special official funeral in the city tomorrow.
Those who have attended to pay their respects include politicians, activists, childhood friends and fellow students.
Krish Govender, who went on to serve on the steering committee of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers, says Gordhan became politicised by conditions at the then University College of Durban for Indians on Salisbury Island.
Govender says he, Gordhan and others started agitating for a student representative council.
“At university it wasn’t long before we became involved in the issue of university oppression and attempting to keep us as glorified high school students, wearing jackets and ties, and having crew cut haircuts and keeping us oppressed.”
ANC holds memorial service for former Minister Pravin Gordhan
Sudhir Pragjee was in the same matric class as Gordhan in Durban’s Sastri College in 1967.
He remembers him as a serious teenager, who also played badminton.
They ran the school tuck shop together.
“And he was a bit more serious than me but I always joked with him that although you are the Minister of Finance now, but I used to look after the tuck shop, the money in the tuck shop. So, it was humorous but he always had this different sense of humour he enjoyed.”
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