Minister in the Presidency
National Planning Commission

Mr Manuel is the Minister in the Presidency reponsible for National Planning Commission of the Republic of South Africa since 11 May 2009. He has been a member of African National Congress (ANC) since 1991 and as a member of Parliament from 1994. He is member of National Working Committee and has been a Chairperson of the Development Committee on International Monetary Fund (IMF) since April 2002.

Mr Manuel holds a National Diploma in Civil and Structural Engineering from the Peninsula Technikon and Executive Management Programme from Stanford National University, Singapore. He Matriculated from Harold Cressy High School in Cape Town.

Mr Manuel was part of a youth movement that attempted to launch a bus boycott across all townships of the Western Cape in 1975; and initiated community newsletter entitled "Kenfacs" in the townships of Ensington /Factreton, the newsletter was used as a basis for community organisation around a series of civic issues in 1979. He was also part of a group who initiated the first community newspaper of scale, Grassroots in 1980.

He was Active in bringing together Parents Supporting Committee which were formed to generate community support for school boycotts. Later he became General Secretary of the Cape Areas Housing Action Committee in 1981 and Regional Secretary and National Executive Member of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in 1983. He was repeatedly detained without trial or placed under house arrest and spending a total of 35 months in detention for these activities between 1985 and 1990.

Mr Manuel was employed by the Mobil Foundation as a Policy Manager on Entrepreneurial and Community Development in 1989 and later he was elected to full-time office in the ANC in August 1991, and appointed as Head of the ANC's Department of Economic Planning being responsible for the shaping of ANC's economic policy during the period 1991 to 1994.

Mr Manuel was appointed to the Advisory Committee of the United Nations (UN) Initiative for Trade Efficiency in August 1994 and as a Minister of Trade and Industry of the Republic of South Africa between 1994 and 1996.

He also served as Governor on the Board of the World Bank, African Development Bank Group and Development Bank of Southern Africa and as Chairman of the Southern African Development Community, Finance and Investment Sector and also as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund at Annual meetings in Prague in 2000.

He has served as Special Envoy to the Secretary-General of United Nations (UN) for the Conference on Financing for Development, held in Monterrey, Mexico from 18-20 March 2002, and as a Special Envoy for Development Finance by the United Nations Secretary General Mr. BanKi-moon. He also served as a Commissioner in the Commission for Africa.

He initiated a programme of support for SMME's for South Africa's accession in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and initiated South Africa's entry into the global economy. He serves on the Commission on Growth and Development as a Commissioner and also Chaired G20 Meetings in November 2007.

Mr Manuel was a Minister of Finance of the Republic of South Africa from 4 April 1996 to 10 May 2009 before being appointed as minister in the Presidency.

Mr Manuel was elected by the World Economic Forum as a Global Leader for Tomorrow in January 1994 and he was awarded the Africa Prize by the German Africa Foundation, jointly with the then South African Minister of Finance, Derek Keys in September 1994.

He is a recepient of Euromoney's African Finance Minister of the year in 1997 and he was inducted as a member of South African Academy of Engineering in February 2001.

He received Honorary Doctorate of Commerce from University of Stellenbosch in December 2001; Honorary Doctorate of Commerce from University of the Western Cape on 13 March 2002; Honorary Doctorate of Technology from Technikon South Africa on 15 November 2002; Honorary Doctorate of Technology from Peninsula Technikon on 16 March 2002 and

Honorary Doctorate of Economics from University of Natal on 2 April 2003.

He was also awarded a Honorary Doctorate of Technology from Free State Technikon in 2003 and Honorary Doctorate of Law from Rhodes University in 2006. He received the Presidential award by the Institute of Personnel Management (IPM) in Johannesburg on 2 October 2006 and Management Excellence Award (MANEX) by Wits Business School on 5 October 2006.

Mr Manuel was also awarded a Johannesburg Press Association Newsmaker of the year for 2005; African Finance Minister of the year 2007 and the Woodrow Wilson Public Service Award 2008; he was also installed Chancellor of the Cape Pensula University August 2008.