Leadership

LEADERSHIP

Pravin Jamnadas Gordhan, MP
Minister

Mr Pravin Gordhan is the current Minister in the Department of Public Enterprises in South Africa. This Department is mandated to perform shareholder oversight on behalf of government over seven (7) State-Owned Companies which include Transnet (rail, freight, ports and engineering); Eskom (electricity utility); Denel (advanced manufacturing and arms industry); South African Airways (SAA); South African Express (SAX), Alexkor (a diamond mining company) and South African Forestry Company Limited (SAFCOL), a timber and forestry.

 

Pravin Gordhan has been actively involved in the anti-apartheid struggle dating back to the 1970s and 1980s when he was an organiser in the student movement and a prominent leader in civic structures.  After qualifying as a pharmacist in 1974, he worked at Durban’s King Edward VIII hospital until 1981 where he was expelled by hospital administration for his involvement in resistance politics. He spent four years underground in the 1980s and became intricately involved in the South African Communist Party and African National Congress.

 

He played a pivotal role in South Africa’s transition as an ANC participant in the multi-party talks at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA), and as co-chair of the Transitional Executive Council.  He chaired the Constitutional Committee, which had oversight over the implementation of the new Constitution that was adopted by Parliament in May 1996. He continued to serve actively as an ANC MP until March 1998 when he joined SARS as Deputy Commissioner. He was appointed as Commissioner in November 1999 where he spent a decade building SARS into a formidable tax and customs administration recognised world-wide for its efforts in enabling the South African government to collect the resources it needed for its development programmes.

 

In May 2009 in the midst of the global financial crisis and a world-wide recession, he was appointed as Minister of Finance and acquired a challenging task to navigate the domestic economy out of turbulence towards fiscal stability and a new growth path. In May 2014, he was appointed as Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs only to be re-appointed to the Finance portfolio in December 2015. He remained the Minister of Finance until he was inexplicably recalled at around midnight on 30th March 2017.

 

He returned to the Legislature as a Member of Parliament and became part of the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises. He continues to serve as member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the African National Congress, having been elected as a NEC member in December 2012. Mr Gordhan is passionate about democracy, racial and gender equality and working towards building a prosperous future for all in South Africa.

POSITIONS
  • Member of Parliament from 1994 until 1998.
  • Chairperson of the Constitutional Committee in Parliament from 1996.
  • Deputy Commissioner for the South African Revenue Service (SARS) from March 1998.
  • Commissioner for SARS from November 1999.
  • Minister of Finance of from 11 May 2009 to 23 May 2014.
  • Member of Parliament from 2014 to present.
  • Minister of Corporative Governance and Traditional Affairs from 23 May 2014 to 13 December 2015.
  • Minister of Finance from 14 December 2015 to 30 March 2017.
  • Minister of Public Enterprises from 26 February 2018 to date.
CONTACT DETAILS
Chief of Staff Nthabiseng Borotho
Telephone 012 431 1289 /072 596 1503
E-mail nthabiseng.borotho@dpe.gov.za

 

Executive Personal Assistant Georgina Sylvester
Telephone 012 431 1256
E-mail georgina.sylvester@dpe.gov.za

 

Parliamentary Liaison Officer Lebohang Tekane
Telephone 021 469 6766
E-mail lebohang.tekane@dpe.gov.za
Obed Bapela, MP
Deputy Minister

MEMBER OF THE EXECUTIVE / CABINET
  • Deputy Minister of Public Enterprises (Current)
  • Deputy Minister Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs 2014-2023
  • Deputy Minister in the Presidency 2011 to 2014.
  • Deputy Minister Communications 2010 to 2011.
PROFFESIONAL CAREER
  • A Journalist by training and used the might of a pen to pursue the struggle for a free South Africa.
  • Not only did his articles agitated the apartheid government but his role in the establishment of the Media and Resource Services (MARS) an alternative media centre which was responsible to train and provide skills in media production, writing and communication skills in 1984.
  • An active member of the South African Students Press Union (SASPU) and also contributed in the establishment of the Community Alternative Newspapers in the 1980s that flourished in the country.
PARLIAMENTARY
  • Member of Parliament since 2002 and served as the House Chairperson and Chairperson of the International Relation and Cooperation Portfolio Committee.
  • Served as a Board members and Co-Chairperson of the Global Centre of Information Communications & Technologies in Parliaments based in Rome, Italy.
  • Participated in the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to formulate governing policies on the Telecommunications of the world.
  • Member of the Gauteng Legislature (MPL) and Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Safety and Security 1994 – 1999.
POLITICAL
  • Member of the African National Congress National Executive Committee (NEC).
  • Deputy Chairperson of the ANC Sub-Committee on International Relations.
  • Served as the Chair of the ANC Sub-Committee on International Relations.
  • Served as a Provincial Secretary of the PWV Region and later Gauteng Province and lead the team that created the first Provincial Government and Legislature of Gauteng.
  • Member of the Gauteng Legislature (MPL) 1994 – 1999.
  • ANC Coordinator for International Affairs Unit from 1999 to 2002.

Mr Kgathatso Tlhakudi
Director-General

Mr. Kgathatso Tlhakudi is the newly appointed Director-General in the Department of Public Enterprises in South Africa, after acting in the post for a year in the 2019/2020 financial year. His role as the Director-General is to advise, support and assist the Minister in his mission to make the SOCs within the Public Enterprises Portfolio successful instruments of service delivery, enablers of economic growth and the providers of important, strategic economic infrastructure for the country.

 

He has previously served the department as a Deputy Director-General Manufacturing Enterprises, responsible for shareholder oversight over Denel Group of Companies, South African Forestry Company Limited (SAFCOL) and Alexkor Diamond Mining Company. The main thrust of his responsibility was to ensure that that the State Owned Corporations capabilities are leveraged to ensure increased advanced manufacturing.

 

Mr. Tlhakudi was Head of Aircraft Systems Acquisition at ARMSCOR, an acquisition agency of the Department of Defence and Military Veterans (DOD) until November 2012. He was also responsible for managing various aircraft product systems and related service acquisition programmes for primarily the DOD, the South African Police Services and other National Governments.

 

He has extensive experience in the aviation, defence and automotive industries, where he has had roles in design and development engineering, project management, production and operations management and after sales support and also worked for Volkswagen South Africa as well as Denel.

 

He holds a BSc Engineering degree from the University of the Witwatersrand and a Masters in Business Administration degree from the University of Cape Town. His other qualifications include studies in Air Transport Management at the Royal Aeronautical Society, Oxford, England; and has been a Gatsby Scholar at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, England. He further holds diplomas in Project Management and Acquisition Management from the University of North-West.

POSITIONS
  • Senior Manager Aircraft Systems Acquisition at ARMSCOR (5 years),
  • Field Operations Manager at Volkswagen South Africa (4 years)
  • Various engineering and management positions at Denel (9 years)
ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS
  • BSc Eng (University of the Witwatersrand)
  • Master in Business Administration (University of Cape Town)
  • Air Transport Management (Royal Aeronautical Society, Oxford, England)
  • Gatsby Scholar (Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, England)
  • Post Graduate Diplomas, Project Management and Acquisition Management (University of North-West)
CONTACT DETAILS
Executive Personal Assistant Esther Nenungwi
Telephone 012 431 1101
E-mail esther.nenungwi@dpe.gov.za
DGOffice@dpe.gov.za