Cape Town - Pravin Gordhan was detained three times as he worked to bring an end to apartheid in South Africa, enduring beatings and suffocation at the hands of the police. He revealed no secrets.

Now Gordhan, in his second stint as finance minister, is demonstrating equal resolve in a standoff with his boss, President Jacob Zuma. They are at loggerheads over how the South African Revenue Service (Sars) is managed and over nuclear-power expansion.

Prosecutors dropped fraud charges against Gordhan on Monday, though they are still investigating allegations that he oversaw the establishment of an illicit investigative unit as head of the tax agency almost a decade ago.