‘We were expecting to have a lot more time with him’, says Gordhan's daughter
Pravin Gordhan retired from active politics after the May 2024 polls to spend more time with his family, and his daughter, Priyesha, says they feel like they have been robbed.
Pravin Gordhan's daughter, Priyesha. Picture: Xanderleigh Makhaza / Eyewitness News
JOHANNESBURG - Former minister Pravin Gordhan’s daughter said her father’s passing still feels surreal.
Priyesha Gordhan was interviewed on Newzroom Afrika, hours after the former anti-apartheid activist died on Friday, after a short battle with cancer at the age of 75.
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Gordhan retired from active politics after the May polls to spend more time with his family. Priyesha said their loss is immense.
“He had just retired, and we were expecting to have a lot more time with him. If you heard him speak anywhere in the past few years, his priority was to spend more time with his family, so in a way, I feel like we were robbed of a lot of time and moments with him.”
Priyesha Gordhan said her father’s wish was to have an understated funeral.
However, speaking to Iman Rappetti, she said the former minister will have a state funeral within the coming week.
A BEST FRIEND
Priyesha said she’d lost her best friend.
“One sort of wonders how you continue, especially for my mom who has lost her soulmate and we’ve lost the anchor of our family, and I think the coming times will be difficult for us to navigate but I think he has taught and given us the tools to do that.”
She explained that her father’s health issues started manifesting in 2016, and they believe it coincided with some of the political challenges he was facing at the time.
“I think as resilient and as formidable as he was, the incessant onslaught of these attacks, these unjustified, completely baseless attacks, really did affect his psyche and even though he didn’t show it, he never showed it to me, to my mom, because he always told us he went through detention, he was tortured and there comes a time when you’re being tortured where you make a decision that you would rather die than give up any information. And when you cross that line where you will give your life up for this country, these attacks, you manage them.”
The former minister has been granted an official funeral, which will take place in Durban on Thursday.
Gordhan is survived by his wife, Vanitha, and daughters Priyesha and Anisha.