Seasoned politician, Mboweni, perfect choice

ONE of the challenges put before President Cyril Ramaphosa ahead of yesterday’s announcement of the new finance minister was that he had to find someone with a proven track record.

In Tito Mboweni, he has turned to a seasoned politician who was head of the SA Reserve Bank for a decade and over that time earned a reputation for controlling inflation.

Mboweni was appointed labour minister in 1994 in former president Nelson Mandela’s Cabinet.

In 1998 he joined the Reserve Bank as adviser to the governor and was appointed to the central bank’s top post in 1999, serving in this position until the end of his term, and succeeded by Gill Marcus in 2009.

During his tenure, Mboweni was appointed honorary professor of economics at Unisa.

He is the chairperson of AngloGold Ashanti. He was appointed a non-executive director for South Africa at the New Development Bank (Brics Development Bank).

In 2014 Mboweni told a Sunday newspaper that the government should consider buying one of the country’s banks to boost access to finance for citizens and businesses.

“It’s a huge amount of money involved, but you must think big, beyond the squatter camp, and then amalgamate that with all these development finance institutions,” he told the paper.

The big banking groups in South Africa include FirstRand, Standard Bank, Barclays Africa, Nedbank and Capitec Bank.

“It’s a huge intervention and the advantage in acquiring one of the existing banks is that you have the infrastructure,” Mboweni said.

It’s a huge intervention and the advantage in acquiring one of the existing banks is you have the infrastructure. Tito Mboweni New Finance Minister