Tributes are pouring in for former Finance Minister Tito Mboweni who died in a Johannesburg hospital yesterday after a short illness.
Lobby group Activists and Citizens Forum has expressed shock at Mboweni’s death.
Mboweni served as the country’s Finance Minister between October 2018 to August 2021.
He also served in former president Nelson Mandela’s cabinet as Labour Minister between 1994 and 1999.
The lobby group’s spokesperson Dennis Bloem says South Africa has lost a person who had served the country with dedication.
Bloem says, “He was loyal, principled and hardworking. Comrade Tito Mboweni leaves this earth without any scandal of corruption. I know that comrade Tito Mboweni hated corruption with passion. His only goal was to see the lives of people getting better. Comrade Tito Mboweni was a good-hearted human being, very humble. We convey our heartfelt condolences to Comrade Tito Mboweni’s family, friends and his political home the ANC. May his soul rest in peace.”
Labour rights
South African Federation of Trade Unions’ (Saftu) General- Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi has also paid tribute to Mboweni.
Vavi says workers will always be indebted to Mboweni as all the labour rights were negotiated under him.
He says, “Today many workers take for granted that they have the Basic Conditions of Employment Act that gives them right to maternity leave, to have overtime pay for Sunday, Saturday, to have lunch and tea breaks, have a right to overtime. All of this would have been very difficult to achieve if we didn’t have have a sympathetic Minister of Labour, the very first Minister of Labour post-apartheid.”
“We will forever be indebted to him. Of course he didn’t only pioneer the introduction of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, this very Labour Relations Act, the Mine Health and Safety Act, that gives workers the right to refuse to do dangerous work, the occupational Health and Safety Act, the Employment Equity Act , you can name them all. All of those were negotiated during the era when the Minster of Labour was Tito Mboweni,” Vavi adds.
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