Tito Mboweni, who was the first Black governor of the South African Reserve Bank and was heralded by financial markets and businesses for keeping tight fiscal controls on the nation’s public spending, has died. He was 65.
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The former governor died after a “short illness,” the Office of the Presidency said late 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,” South African 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.
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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.