Former finance minister Pravin Gordhan will join his old colleague, former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene, at the University of the Witwatersrand’s Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management.
Gordhan was offered, and has accepted, a job as visiting professor at the Wits School of Governance.
In what now looks like a political statement, the university has appointed both finance ministers that were fired by President Jacob Zuma in two badly motivated Cabinet reshuffles in less than 18 months, that were widely seen as clearing the way for state capture at National Treasury.
Speaking to City Press yesterday, faculty dean Imraan Valodia said this would be “reading far too much into it”.
“We asked Nene to help with a very specific, hands-on management job. That is very different. The two are not related.”
Nene landed a job as interim head of the Wits Business School (WBS) in June this year after he was sacked from Cabinet by Zuma in December 2015 - an event subsequently dubbed Nenegate.
Gordhan’s new visiting professorship will be unpaid and part-time.
Like the school of governance, the WBS is part of the same faculty headed by Valodia.
“It is quite an open-ended thing,” said Valodia.
“Visiting professors give occasional lectures and assist postgraduate students.
“You want someone who has done something outstanding in the world,” said Valodia referencing former Constitutional Court Judge Zakeria Yacoob, who has been a visiting professor at Wits.
When Nene initially got replaced as finance minister by Des van Rooyen, the presidency claimed he was on his way to take up a job at the Brics bank. This turned out to be untrue.
Following a dramatic market reaction and public uproar, Van Rooyen was moved to the cooperative governance ministry where he still resides, while Gordhan took the reigns at Treasury for a second time after having stepped down in 2014.
He was removed earlier this year in favour of Malusi Gigaba and has been a vociferous critic of state capture ever since.
Gordhan is also still a member of Parliament.
In a statement announcing Gordhan’s appointment, the university praised Gordhan for his “experience and principled stand on good governance and transformation of the economy”.
“His strong views on corruption and financial mismanagement in the public and private sector are well known,” said the head of the WBS David Everatt.