FILE PHOTO: South African Finance Minister Tito Mboweni reacts as he arrives to deliver his budget speech at the parliament in Cape Town, South Africa, February 26, 2020. Reuters/Sumaya Hisham/File Photo
CAPE TOWN: Tito Mboweni, who was the first Black governor of the South African Reserve Bank was heralded by financial markets and business for keeping tight fiscal controls on the nation’s public spending, has died. He was 65.
The former governor died after a “short illness,” the Office of the Presidency said last Saturday.
Mboweni served as central bank governor between 1999 and 2009, and as finance minister from October 2018 to August 2021.
“We have lost a leader and compatriot who has served our nation as an activist, economic policy innovator and champion of labour rights,” president Cyril Ramaphosa said.
“As governor and finance minister, he had a sharp focus on fiscal discipline and economic transformation.”
Mboweni was appointed finance minister by Ramaphosa during his first term as leader of the country, when the president pledged to combat corruption and rebuild confidence in an economy that was in the doldrums after nine years under former president Jacob Zuma.
Mboweni previously served as South Africa’s labour minister in the country’s first democratic cabinet after the end of White minority rule in 1994.
“Tito Mboweni distinguished himself in different strategic roles in the private sector and was a flag bearer in global forums for our economy and developing economies more broadly,” Ramaphosa said.
One of Mboweni’s major achievements at the central bank was building up the nation’s foreign-exchange reserves to almost US$40bil from less than US$10bil.
After his time at the reserve bank, Mboweni joined the private sector as an adviser in South Africa for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. He also served as chairman of AngloGold Ashanti Ltd and sat on the boards of various other firms. — Bloomberg
