Veteran South African politician and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said that the late Struggle icon Professor Hoosen Mahomed “Jerry” Coovadia’s legacy can be found all around the country, in the democracy he played a role in achieving.
Gordhan was speaking to IOL on Wednesday after the funeral of Coovadia.
The late scientist and activist died on Wednesday and was buried according to Muslim rites.
He was 83.
Gordhan and Coovadia were good friends who shared many memories together, outside of politics and their anti-apartheid activism.
Former health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize and former KwaZulu-Natal MEC of Economic Development, Tourism, and Environmental Affairs, Ravi Pillay, were in attendance as well.
Other well-known Indian activists and journalists were in attendance, including retired Judge Thumba Pillay.
“He was a fine human being and someone who combined science, basic humanity, political activism, and excellence in his medical research and clinical work.
“He had a really sharp mind, one of the most brilliant that South Africa has produced,” Gordhan said.
Coovadia also played an instrumental role in the formation of South Africa’s new health system, post-apartheid government, where health care had to reach far corners of the country and not just the developed, urban areas.
“He was part of the generation of a new and future health system, but of course, he was disappointed with some of the outcomes.”
Having known one another for decades, having watched a country transition from an all-white dictatorship government into a democratic one, and having both played parts in the liberation together, Gordhan said Coovadia’s legacy is seen in “everything around us”.
“It’s everything you see around us—the quality of democracy, the quality of medical research, the bravery to do things unpopular, to stand up for what is right, but most importantly, the democracy we have today,” Gordhan told IOL while walking up a hill to his car.
Former KwaZulu-Natal cricket administrator, political activist, and friend of Coovadia, Cassim Docrat, said the late professor played a big role in the United Democratic Movement prior to South Africa’s independence.
Besides being a fierce politician, Docrat said he was a “wonderful man”.
“Jerry was very strong within the MDM movement. He just had the ability to unite people, especially people around him, whether at medical school, university, or his community. Jerry was a magnet.
“He played a wonderful role in what South Africans have today, and it was unfortunate that in his later years, he was a bit bogged down, but I don’t think he ever lost the feel or the fight. We hope the legacy that he has left is continued by the people who are still around,” Docrat said.
President Cyril Ramaphosa sent an official message of condolence to his family.
“As a family, you have been privileged to experience the love, warmth, and gentleness of a man who, as a human rights campaigner and rigorous scientist, made many outstanding contributions to the human family globally.
“Beyond Forest Drive and the Riverside Mosque, the meaning of Jerry Coovadia is memorialised through the lives of millions of people in our own country and the world who owe their very existence to Jerry Coovadia’s excellence as a medical practitioner, researcher, and author of public health policy initiatives,” Ramaphosa wrote in a letter to the family.
A former mentee of Coovadia, Dr Dhriti Purmasir, told IOL he still has Coovadia’s textbook, which he refers to as “the Bible of Paediatrics.
“He was a very kind and patient gentleman and a brilliant paediatrician. An academic with integrity and one of my best teachers at Natal Medical School more than 30 years ago. I still have his textbook,” Purmasir said.
IOL