Tito Mboweni

Tito Titus Mboweni (16 March 1959 – 12 October 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 9 October 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).^{[citation needed]}

The youngest of three children, Tito Mboweni was born on 16 March 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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}