Ashor: South Africa’s new kid on the block
Ashor believes in his role to serve the citizens of South Africa.
Fresh from being sworn in as one of South Africa’s youngest ministers, Ashor Sarupen is anxious for the future.
The 36-year-old from Rowhill became the new Deputy Minister of Finance on July 3. Ashor was just 17 when he started his journey in making a difference.
Little did the young man who attended Bakerton and Pinegrove primary schools and Hoërskool Johan Jurgens know that this was just the beginning.
“I joined the DA in 2006 as a branch member in Springs”
His dreams of pursuing politics were further fueled when he met Helen Zille in 2007.
“She had recently become mayor of Cape Town and started to turn things around. Her commitment to public service made me change my mind about politicians, in general. Politicians aren’t all bad and she is proof of that.”
Ashor admits that fitting into his chosen path was not easy.
“I am an introvert by nature, so politics is not a natural fit for me. However, you learn and adapt based on the demands of the job, and I have learnt the importance of a high EQ and keeping people together.”
He adds no serious political career is easy as it has many setbacks.
“From the outside, when you get into a higher office it always looks easy, but there are hundreds of daily challenges that go unseen. Politics is not a sympathetic business, and one needs a thick skin.”
To get where he is today, Ashor graduated and attained a BSc Honours and his MBA at Wits and an MPhil in Corporate Strategy at the Gordon Institute of Business Science at the University of Pretoria.
His MBA research focused on Business Models for the Internet of Things, and his MPhil research was into the impact of anti-globalisation on the South African economy.
Ashor describes his role as the deputy minister.
“My role is very technical and relates to the management of finances. I had a preliminary conversation with the minister about working on several economic reforms to create jobs.”
He says he will also receive a system of delegations from the finance minister to manage specific functions on how government finances are run.
The role is not without its pressures as Asher weighs in on his anxiety at a time when all eyes will be on him.
“It’s time to deliver for South Africans. There are problems everywhere and we must fix things, but this will take time because we must cut corruption.”
Ashor describes his leadership style as data-driven. I like to make decisions based on the best information available and then get a team to understand what the data says about what we need to do to get the best result.”
About his plans, Ashor says he’s always taken life one day at a time.
“I don’t plan my career out, and never expected to have a political career. I am most comfortable behind a laptop with my spreadsheets and data.
“I hope that at the end of the five years, voters think of me as having done my best for our country.”
