Veteran politician Tito Mboweni, a former anti-apartheid activist who won praise for his fiscal prudence and for shaping the country’s labour laws, died Saturday aged 65, the government announced.
The former minister died on Saturday evening surrounded by loved ones, his family said.
During the apartheid years, he was in exile in neighbouring Lesotho from 1980 before returning to South Africa in 1990.
Who is Titus Mboweni?
Tito Titus Mboweni (March 16, 1959 – 12 October 12, 2024) was a South African politician who served as Minister of Finance of South Africa in the government of President Cyril Ramaphosa from 2018 to 2021.
Mboweni was the eighth Governor of the South African Reserve Bank and the first Black South African to hold the post from 1999 to 2009. He was sworn in as Minister of Finance on October 9, 2018, following Nhlanhla Nene’s resignation.
Mboweni was a founding member of Mboweni Brothers Investment Holdings and a former international advisor of Goldman Sachs International. He had been appointed a non executive Director for South Africa at the New Development Bank (BRICS Development Bank).
Early Life and Career
The youngest of three children, Tito Mboweni was born on March 16, 1959. He grew up in Tzaneen in the Limpopo Province.
He attended the University of the North between 1979 and 1980, where he registered for a Bachelor of Commerce degree. He did not complete his studies there and left South Africa to go into exile in 1980.
While in exile in Lesotho, Mboweni joined the African National Congress (ANC), South Africa’s current governing party, and was an activist for the party in many capacities.
He obtained a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in economics and political science from the National University of Lesotho in 1985. In 1988 he obtained a Master of Arts in Development Economics from the University of East Anglia in England.
Political Career
Prior to his appointment as Minister of Labour, Mboweni was Deputy Head of the Department of Economic Policy in the ANC.
He also represented the ANC on several domestic and international platforms.
Mboweni was a member of the ANC’s National Executive and National Working Committees and was also Chairperson of the National Executive Committee’s Economic Transformation Committee, which coordinated the development of ANC economic policies.
Mboweni served as Minister of Labour from May 1994 to July 1998 in South African President Nelson Mandela’s cabinet.
While Minister of Labour Mboweni was the architect of South Africa’s post-Apartheid labour legislation, which allowed for collective bargaining and the establishment of labour courts.
He became one of the World Economic Forums Global Leaders of Tomorrow in 1995.
In 1997, Mboweni was appointed head of the ANC’s Policy Department which was responsible for managing ANC policy processes.
Upon joining the South African Reserve Bank, he resigned all of his elected and appointed positions in the ANC.
Mboweni joined the South African Reserve Bank in July 1998 as the first black Advisor to the Governor. On August 8, 1999, he succeeded Dr. Chris Stals as Governor of the Reserve Bank.
As governor, he oversaw the launch of the inflation targeting policy to help the bank achieve price stability and dealt with the rand’s plunge due to global and local events.
During his tenure, Mboweni was appointed honorary Professor of Economics at the University of South Africa for 2000 to 2003.
The Governor was also elected Chancellor of the University of the North-West and was installed as Chancellor on February 23, 2002.
The University of Stellenbosch appointed the Governor Professor Extraordinary in Economics for the period April 1, 2002 to 31 March 31, 2005.
Minister of Finance (2018 – 2021)
On October 9, 2018, Mboweni was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa as the new Minister of Finance of the Republic of South Africa with immediate effect following Nhlanhla Nene’s resignation.
From the beginning of his tenure Mboweni often found himself at odds with the ruling ANC policy and ideology.
The ruling ANC has always inclined itself towards socialist policies, a stance which has been viewed as a form of appeasing its alliance partners, the South African Communist Party and COSATU.
On the other hand, Mboweni continuously proffered liberal solutions such as his 2019 economic recovery growth plan which was rejected by SACP and COSATU.
His economic growth plan was widely criticised in the Public Sector. In an opinion piece, Telkom Group CEO Sipho Maseko slammed Mboweni’s proposed reforms for the ICT sector, particularly plans related to the rollout of spectrum, as being “ill-thought-out”.
However the response was different in the private sector, CEO of Bridgement Daniel Goldberg during his Sage tour to Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durban hailed the plan, saying “it will improve the rate at which big state owned enterprises pays its suppliers consequently increasing efficiency in the economy.
Phumlani Majozi in his opinion piece on Finance 24 argued that “Mboweni’s ideas on how to revamp this economy, presented in his recent paper, titled “Economic Transformation, Inclusive Growth and Competitiveness: Towards an Economic Strategy for South Africa”, are what will get this country back on track.”
In June 2020, Mboweni proposed a new austerity policy, to cut the state’s wage bill of R160.2 billion over three years and to adopt a Zero-based budget system in order to avoid a sovereign debt crisis in 2024.
On August 5, 2021, Mboweni resigned as finance minister. He was succeeded in the post by Enoch Godongwana.
