Oliver Tambo, who tragically died in 1993, is widely credited as the glue that held the ANC together during the dark years of state repression. In 1991 the baton for the final lap of the struggle for liberation was handed to Nelson Mandela, who is universally recognised as the father of South Africa’s political transition.
On the economic front, however, it was left to a troika of technocrats, Thabo Mbeki, Tito Mboweni and Trevor Manuel, to craft ANC economic policies for post-apartheid South Africa. The troika became the glue of economic policy in the post-democratic era until all were largely booted out of their official roles by 2009.
The trio had no time for dogma, and led the charge to abandon the smokescreen of the ANC’s commitment to a socialist economic model. This model was coded in language of a “mixed economy with a strong development state”.
The ANC policy-making apparatus was a collective enterprise, often characterised by deep ideological division within the structures and across the tripartite alliance. This manifested in heated intellectual exchanges around the appropriate role of the state vs the market in the years leading up to 1994. ANC policy guru Joel Netshitenzhe was singularly masterful in crafting the economic logic of the troika throughout their years of influence in government, into ANC speak. In addition, various speech writers for Mandela, including Saki Macozoma, infused economic pragmatism into ANC lingo.
Fierce battles raged for the soul of ANC economic plans after democracy. Joe Slovo penned “Has socialism failed?” in 1989. While he called for an “unsparing critique of socialism”, he remained, together with many supporters in the ANC and SACP, deeply committed to the idea of a socialist economy.
However, the influence of Slovo and those associated with socialist ideals was significantly dented by the dramatic collapse of the communist governments of Eastern Europe. Eventually, the views of this group became minority opinions and were largely discarded.
The troika was by no means pro-market crusaders. The ANC in general, including the troika, had a deep mistrust of business and the private sector, but they understood the vital role of the private sector as the primary engine of growth, job creation and prosperity.
In the early ’90s South Africa — badly mismanaged by the apartheid government — was in the throes of a deep economic crisis afflicted by high inflation, high unemployment, negative economic growth, rampant poverty, high levels of inequality and low levels of domestic savings.
Against this backdrop, the troika prevailed. They nudged the ANC towards a set of economic and structural reforms which produced the longest period of uninterrupted growth in South Africa in decades. Between 2004 and 2007, the country recorded its fastest growth rates since the 1960s, with GDP growing at 5.2% per annum. After years of exceptional fiscal prudence, the country recorded its first budget surplus in 2006. This was a product of the macroeconomic stability achieved through inflation-targeting led by Reserve Bank Governor Mboweni and the systematic reduction of the fiscal deficit led by finance minister Manuel under the political leadership of then president Mbeki. These were indeed the golden years of the troika’s influence.
The bitter years of state capture weighed heavily on Mboweni. He lamented his dismay to me about the lack of ethical leadership and plain disgust at the looting of state resources by his former comrades.
South Africa’s political transition is often characterised as a miracle. On the economic policy front, there were no miracles. The economic policy framework of the ANC was the products of conscious policy choices with the fingerprints of the troika all over it. If Mandela, Mbeki and Manuel made high level policy speeches in those early years, it was the department of economic policy. under the stewardship of Mboweni, which elaborated how these policies were to be funded and implemented. The department’s day-to-day machinery of economic policy was guided by Mboweni.
Within hours of Mboweni’s tragic passing, this former team of the DEP of the ANC (pre-1994) created a WhatsApp group. Still gripped with grief, we tried to come to terms with the devastating news of the untimely death of one of the greatest sons of South Africa.
The group includes Manuel Sisulu, Moss Ngoasheng, Maria Ramos, Derek Hanekom, Lesetja Kganyago, Viv McMenamin, Ismail Momoniat, Roger Jardine, Alec Erwin, Neil Morrisen, Ketso Gordhan, Zav Rustomjee, Fuad Cassim and others. This team constituted a formidable nucleus of influence in the design of the post-apartheid economic policy architecture.
More recently, the bitter years of state capture weighed heavily on Mboweni. He lamented his dismay to me about the lack of ethical leadership and plain disgust at the looting of state resources by his former comrades.
Mboweni devoted his life to the design of post-apartheid economic policy. He was a lodestar that guided South Africa, with unwavering commitment, away from a possible path into populism or dangerous socialist experiments. To say his contribution to the fabric of economic policy was immense is an understatement. For this contribution, his name will echo down the ages alongside those of Tambo and Mandela as architects of the modern South Africa.
• Maasdorp was a member of the ANC DEP and special adviser to Mboweni when he was minister of labour. He was the inaugural vice-president and CFO of Brics New Development Bank (2015-2024). He writes in his personal capacity.
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