Trevor Manuel, pillar of South African economy

Mr Trevor Manuel has served as a minister in the South African government for the past 18 years, 13 of them as Finance Minister.  His first portfolio was under President Nelson Mandela as Minister of Trade and Industry. He is currently Minister in the Presidency National Planning Commission.
Prior to serving in South Africa’s first democratic government, Mr Manuel headed the Department of Economic Planning established in 1991 by the African National Congress, a year after it’s unbanning. Between 1975 and 1991 he was an activist and anti-apartheid leader, serving on the National Executive Committee of the United Democratic Front, a mass movement of anti-apartheid organisations.

Between 1985 and 1990 he was repeatedly detained without trial and placed under house arrest, spending 35 months in detention. He has served as a member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress since his first election in 1991 and subsequent re-election in 1994, 1997, 2002 and 2007.

Mr Manuel has served in various senior capacities for a number of national and international bodies. He was Governor of the Boards of the African Development Bank Group as well as the Development Bank of Southern Africa. He also served as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund, as Chair of the Development Committee of the World Bank and has chaired G-20 meetings.

He was appointed as Special Envoy to the Secretary-General of the United Nations on financing for development in 2002 and in 2008 and served as a commissioner in the International Task Force on Global Public Goods and on the Commission for Africa.

He was a member of the Commission on Growth and Development, which was chaired by Professor Michael Spence. More recently he was appointed by the UN Secretary General to the High Level Advisory Group on Climate Change Finance. In 2010 he was appointed to the board of directors of the Global Green Growth Institute and in 2011 he was elected to co-chair the Transitional Committee for the Design of a Green Climate Fund.

Mr Manuel has received a number of awards and presentations, including Africa's Finance Minister of the Year and the Woodrow Wilson Public Service award.

He has seven honorary doctorates from South African tertiary institutions and a Doctor of Laws from MacMaster University, Ontario Canada. His South African doctorates are in the following fields:- two of commerce, three of technology, one of economics and one of law. He has served as the Chancellor of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) since May 2008.

Mr Manuel was born in 1956. He matriculated from Harold Cressy High School in Cape Town. He has a National Diploma in Civil and Structural Engineering from the Peninsula Technikon and completed the Executive Management Programme from Stanford National University and the National University, Singapore.

As a young boy, Manuel was exposed to the negative aspects of the apartheid regime when his black neighbours were forced to move from Kensington to Gugulethu. He became politically active in 1969 when he joined the Labour Party Youth with the blessing of his father, but left the organisation as a result of peer pressure.

Political activities and arrests

The number of political arrests increased rapidly in the next few years and in 1985 Manuel went into hiding. He was, nevertheless, arrested and detained under the Internal Security Act from October 22 1985. On November 15 he was banned from attending any meetings until August 30, 1990. Manuel was released on November 21, but his movements were severely limited as a result of his banning order. The order was overturned and the ban lifted on March 25 1986 and Manuel recommitted himself to the fight against apartheid.

Due to his political activities he was again arrested on August 15 1986. Initially held at the Sea Point police station, he was soon transferred to the Victor Verster Prison near Paarl. Manuel was detained for more than a year and was released on July 7, 1988, only to be rearrested on 21 September. This time he was kept a Pollsmoor Prison and released, under heavy restrictions, on February 17, 1989. He was under house arrest during the night, had to report to the Athlone police station twice a day and was limited to the Wynberg magisterial district.

In August and September 1989 the Mass Democratic Movement organised a defiance campaign to correspond with the general elections. Manuel decided to disobey his banning order to speak at a press conference in Athlone on August 2 and was arrested by the end of the month. This time he was held at Grootvlei Prison near Bloemfontein in the Free State. He was released on September 26.

Political career

Manuel also felt that the Labour Party's participation in the Coloured Representative Council was unacceptable. In his matric year Manuel was influenced by students at the University of the Western Cape and developed a view in line with Black Consciousness principles.

In 1974 Manuel became involved in the mainly Catholic, Young Christian Workers (YCW). The group concerned itself with worker-related issues.

The following year, Manuel served on an action committee against bus fare increases. The initiation of a bus boycott was unsuccessful and the youth group disbanded as a result of internal political disagreement. This was followed by a brief period of participation in an adult literacy project for migrant workers. In 1976 Manuel did support work during the Soweto Uprisings. He helped in raising bail and finding legal help for the arrested.

1979 saw Manuel involved in the publishing of a community newspaper called Kenfacts. He served on the editorial committee of Grassroots, a newly launched newspaper, and also joined the Kensington/Factreton Tenants and Ratepayers Association, which organisation played a supporting role in the 1980 school boycott. During this period he also played an important role in the bus boycott because he was one of the few activists that was not detained.

From here Manuel moved on to become a member of the steering committee for the Umbrella Rentals Committee. This group had been established to co-ordinate protests against rent increases in various communities and was later changed to the Cape Areas Housing Action Committee. Manuel was elected secretary of the organisation.

He remained involved in housing issues and attended the 1983 Anti-South African Indian Council Committee conference in Johannesburg.  Here the idea of a united democratic front against the Koornhof Bills and the proposed new constitution was presented. Manual was involved in the founding of the United Democratic Front (UDF) and was selected as secretary of his area. Soon afterwards he was elected to the UDF national executive.

Head ANC’s Dept of Economic Planning

In 1992, Manuel became the head of the ANC's Department of Economic Planning. Due to the fact that he lacked formal education in economics, he had to rapidly become familiar with key issues. He helped to develop the ANC's economic policies while considering input from private business, trade unions and the ANC electorate. He also served as a member of the ANC committee handling socio-economic reconstruction and development.

In the first democratic elections in 1994, Manuel stood as an ANC candidate and was appointed as a Member of Parliament. In May 1994, he became Minister of Trade, Industry and Tourism and in 1996 was appointed as Minister of Finance.

By Suleman Mustapha/Graphic Business/Ghana