Minister in the Presidency
National Planning Commission

Personal

• Date of Birth: 31 January 1956

Current Positions

• Minister in the Presidency: National Planning Commission of the Republic of South Africa since 11 May 2009.
• Member of National Executive Committee (NEC) of the African National Congress (ANC) since 1991.
• Member of Parliament since 1994.
• Member of National Working Committee.

Academic Qualifications

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

Career/Positions/Memberships/Other Activities

• Part of a youth movement who attempted to launch a bus boycott across all townships of the Western Cape (1975).
• Initiated community newsletter entitled "Kenfacs" in the townships of Kensington/Factreton, the newsletter was used as a basis for community organisation around a series of civic issues (1979).
• Part of a group who initiated the first community newspaper of scale, Grassroots (1980).
• Active in bringing together a number of Parents Supporting Committee which were formed to generate community support for school boycotts.
• General Secretary of the Cape Areas Housing Action Committee (1981).
• Regional Secretary and National Executive Member of the United Democratic Front (UDF) (1983).
• Repeatedly detained without trial or placed under house arrest, spending a total of 35 months in detention for these activities (1985 - February 1990).
• Employed with the Mobil Foundation as a Policy Manager on Entrepreneurial and Community Development (May 1989).
• Elected to full-time office in the ANC (August 1991).
• Appointed as Head of the ANC's Department of Economic Planning (1991).
• Responsible for the shaping of ANC's economic policy in this capacity (1991 - May 1994).
• Appointed to the Advisory Committee of the United Nations (UN) Initiative for Trade Efficiency (August 1994).
• Minister of Trade and Industry of the Republic of South Africa (1994 - 3 April 1996).
• Governor on the Board of the World Bank, African Development Bank Group and Development Bank of Southern Africa.
• Chairman of the South African Development Community Finance and Investment Sector.
• Chairman of the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund at Annual meetings in Prague in September 2000.
• Served as Special Envoy to the Secretary-General, UN for the Conference on Financing for Development, held in Monterrey, Mexico from 18-20 March 2002.
• Chairperson of the Development Committee, International Monetary Fund (IMF) since April 2002.
• Appointed as a Commissioner in the Commission for Africa.
• 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.
• Serves on the Commission on Growth and Development as a Commissioner.
• Appointed Special Envoy for Development Finance by the United Nations Secretary General Mr. BanKi-moon.
• Chaired G20 Meetings, November 2007.
• Minister of Finance of the Republic of South Africa (4 April 1996 - 10 May 2009).

Awards/Decorations/Presentations/Bursaries

• Elected by the World Economic Forum as a Global Leader for Tomorrow (January 1994).
• Awarded the Africa Prize by the German Africa Foundation, jointly with the then South African Minister of Finance, Derek Keys (September 1994).
• Named Euromoney's African Finance Minister of the year (1997).
• Inducted as a member of South African Academy of Engineering (February 2001).
• Honorary Doctorate of Commerce from University of Stellenbosch (December 2001).
• Honorary Doctorate of Commerce from University of the Western Cape (13 March 2002).
• Honorary Doctorate of Technology from Technikon South Africa (15 November 2002).
• Honorary Doctorate of Technology from Peninsula Technikon (16 March 2002).
• Honorary Doctorate of Economics from University of Natal (02 April 2003).
• Honorary Doctorate of Technology from Free State Technikon (2003).
• Honorary Doctorate of Law from Rhodes University (2006).
• Presidential award by the Institute of Personnel Management (IPM), Johannesburg (2 October 2006).
• Management Excellence Award (MANEX) by Wits Business School (5 October 2006).
• Awarded Johannesburg Press Association Newsmaker of the year for 2005.
• Installed Chancellor of the Cape Pensula University August 2008
• Awarded African Finance Minister of the year 2007.
• Awarded the woodrow Wilson Public Service Award 2008.