Mr Pravin Jamnadas Gordhan

Appointed as minister of finance in May 2009, Pravin Jamnadas Gordhan served as commissioner for the South African Revenue Service (SARS) for ten years from 1999 and SARS deputy commissioner in 1998. Prior to that he was a member of parliament in the National Assembly, chairing parliament’s constitutional committee following three years as co-chairman of the Transitional Executive Council responsible for preparing South Africa for the 1994 elections. Gordhan also played a leading role in multi-party negotiations at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (Codesa). Active in politics since the late 1960s, he was detained three times for his work with the Natal Indian Congress and in the underground structures of the ANC and South African Communist Party (SACP). Gordhan has chaired the formum on tax administration for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the World Customs Organisation. He holds a BSc in pharmacy from the University of Durban-Westville.