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This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. It is the product of almost two decades of research and includes analyses, chronologies, historical documents, and interviews from the apartheid and post-apartheid eras.

Mboweni, Tito Titus

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Tito Mboweni was born on 16 March 1959 and grew up in Tzaneen in the Northern Province of South Africa. He attended the University of the North from 1979 to 1980 and studied towards a Bachelor of Commerce degree. However, he was unable to complete his studies as he went into exile in 1980 after helping to establish the Turfloop branch of Azaso and being elected to its executive.

He joined the ANC while in exile in Lesotho in 1985. While in Lesotho he attended the National University of Lesotho where he completed a BA Honours in Economics. In 1987 he obtained a Master of Arts degree in Development Economics from the University of East Anglia, England.

Mboweni was appointed Minister of Labour in the new South African government from May 1994 to July 1998, in President Mandela's cabinet. Before this appointment, he was deputy head of the Department of Economic policy in the ANC and also represented organisations on several domestic and international platforms. Mboweni was also a member of the ANC National Executive Committee's economic transformation committee. In 1995 Mboweni became one of the World Economic Forum's Global Leaders for Tomorrow.

In 1997, he was appointed head of the ANC's Policy Department, responsible for managing ANC policy processes. Afterward, upon joining the SA Reserve Bank, he resigned all of his elected and appointed party positions in the ANC.

He joined the SA Reserve Bank in July 1998 as advisor to the Governor. In August 1999, he was appointed Governor of the South African Reserve Bank. During this time he was appointed Honorary Professor of the University of South Africa from 2000 to 2003.

The University of Natal, Durban awarded the Mboweni the degree of Doctor of Economics, Honoris causae. The degree was conferred on him in 2001. He was also elected Chancellor of the University of the North West and installed as such in February 2002. The University of Stellenbosch in the Western Cape province appointed Mboweni Professor Extraordinaire in Economics for the period April 2002 to March 2005.

Sources: Gastrow, S. 1995. Who's Who in South African Politics, Number 5. Ravan Press: Johannesburg.

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