JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Pravin Gordhan, who was a South African government minister for many years after beginning his political career opposing apartheid, died Friday. He was 75 and had cancer.

Gordhan, a long-time member of the African National Congress party, retired from active politics after the May elections when the ANC lost its parliamentary majority for the first since it came into power in 1994.

“Mr. Gordhan passed away peacefully in hospital surrounded by his family, closest friends and his long-time comrades in the liberation struggle in the early hours of this morning,” his family said in a statement early Friday following his death after being hospitalized this week.

“We have lost an outstanding leader whose unassuming persona belied the depth of intellect, integrity and energy with which he undertook his activism, his duty as a parliamentarian and his roles as a member of Cabinet,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement.

A political activist from his teenage years, Gordhan joined the struggle against the racist and oppressive system of apartheid and joined the ANC's underground structures in the 1980s.

He was one of the negotiators for the country's peaceful transition to a constitutional democracy and became a member of parliament in 1994 after Nelson Mandela became the country's first democratically elected president.

His last position in government was as the minister of public enterprises from 2018 to 2024 in charge of state-owned enterprises. He served two terms as finance minister from 2009 to 2014 and again from 2015 to 2017.

From 1999 to 2009, Gordhan was the head of the South Africa Revenue Services, which he was credited with transforming into a world-class tax and customs service.

Gordhan was an outspoken critic of corruption in government and state-owned enterprises, and was one of the ministers who criticized the leadership of former President Jacob Zuma while he was still serving in his Cabinet.