Page 194 - SARB: 100-Year Journey

Tito Mboweni, Governor, 1999–2009
Tito Mboweni was the eighth Governor of the SARB and served a memorable two terms in the role. In May 1994, at the age of 35, President Nelson Mandela appointed him as a democratic South Africa’s new Minister of Labour.
At the time, the labour portfolio was one of the most critical in terms of economic stabilisation and growth because the country had been beset by recurring and damaging strikes since the 1970s. These intensified in the 1980s as opposition to apartheid repression grew across the country, with millions of work hours lost each year. Lost production cost the country foreign exchange earnings, especially in the mining sector, a major source of export revenue.
Mboweni helped establish a new labour relations regime, which set out fair and transparent processes and institutions, such as the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, for the resolution of workplace disputes. This new labour relations framework helped stabilise and harmonise employer-employee relations, and drastically reduced unlawful strikes as well as strikes in general.
Mboweni was also mandated to drive a broader labour reform programme to align South Africa’s labour laws with the new Constitution adopted in 1996.
In 1998, his tenure as Minister of Labour was cut short when Mboweni was approached by then Deputy President Thabo Mbeki and asked to join the SARB as a special adviser to Governor Dr Chris Stals. This was to prepare Mboweni to succeed Stals, who was at the time well into his second term as Governor.
During an interview for this publication, Mboweni recalled Mbeki slipping him a note in 1998, while the two were in Parliament, about wanting to have a conversation.
“I’m going to leave the National Assembly in a little while. I want you to follow me so that we can have a conversation,” read Mbeki’s handwritten note to Mboweni.
Mbeki left the chamber. Mboweni followed and was met outside by Mbeki’s large security detail. “Then, he [Mbeki] says to them, ‘You guys, please walk a little bit further behind because I want to discuss something confidential with the Minister’,” Mboweni said.
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Tito Mboweni was the eighth Governor of the Bank. /National Treasury