Tito Mboweni’s “short illness” was acknowledged by the presidency on Saturday night, but no other details were provided.
“We have lost a leader and compatriot who has served our nation as an activist, economic policy innovator and champion of labour rights,” stated the president.
His family said they were “devastated” and that Mbwoeni passed away “surrounded by his loved ones” at a Johannesburg hospital.
Mboweni, a former anti-apartheid activist, studied at a university in Lesotho during his nearly ten years of exile.
A master’s degree from the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom came next.
In later years, he was cited as remarking, “I guess you can call me an exile kid, and an international kid born in South Africa.”
However, South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique, Zambia, Angola, Tanzania, Swaziland, the United States, Switzerland, and all the places I visited as a child are where I call home. I can’t tolerate narrow nationalism; I detest it. I detest xenophobia.
After his return to South Africa in 1990, he worked as President Nelson Mandela’s first labor minister, helping to shape the country’s post-apartheid labor legislation.
These established the framework for labor courts and collective bargaining agreements to safeguard the rights of employees.
