After Nelson Mandela was released from prison by South Africa’s apartheid government in 1990, he needed someone to take on the critical role of negotiating with business leaders. The task involved walking a tightrope between frightening them into capital flight and democratising an economy whose ownership was concentrated into a handful of conglomerates, dominated by the gold and diamond miners, almost all of whom were white. It went to Tito Mboweni, who has died aged 65 following a short illness, and he came to have a key influence on the country’s development.
In the transition period to 1994, when the African National Congress came to power in the first multiracial general election, the party was divided between the centre and the left, with the latter calling for the nationalisation of mines and banks. Mandela had to intervene, urging pragmatism, and Mboweni used the threat of nationalisation as leverage over both the apartheid-era National party, led by FW de Klerk as president, and the heads of big business.
