Four months after being unceremoniously fired from the finance ministry, former minister Nhlanhla Nene has moved on – and taken a job at Allan Gray.
Nene has been appointed a non-executive director at the privately-owned investment management firm, having been touted by president Jacob Zuma to take up a senior position at the BRICS Development Bank.
That position has not materialised, despite president Zuma’s instance to the contrary.
“I have publicly stated on several occasions that South Africa nominated Mr Nhlanhla Nene for the position of head of the African regional centre of the New Development Bank, also known as the Brics Bank.
“Processes to make an appointment to that position are under way under the aegis of the New Development Bank in Shanghai, China,” Zuma said in a recent written reply to Parliament.
“We are very happy to have someone of Mr Nene’s experience on our board, and we are grateful that he chose to accept the appointment,” said Ian Liddle, chairman of the board at Allan Gray, in a statement on Monday.
“Mr Nene has extensive experience in the financial services and public sector. He served in local government from 1996, became a member of Parliament in 1999 and was later made chairman of the budget and finances committee. He was appointed deputy minister of finance and chairman of the Public Investment Corporation in November 2008aand then served as minister of finance from May 2014, until December 2015,” the statement said.
Nene holds a Comm (Hons) from the University of the Western Cape and other certificates in economics and public finance.
On 12 December 2015, president Jacob Zuma announced a surprise shuffle in his cabinet, firing Nene as the country’s finance minister. The move caught everyone unawares – including markets, which responded negatively to the announcement, sending the rand into a tailspin.
Speaking to eNCA recently, Nene said that he had taken a position in the private sector after four months of being unemployed – though he would not say where.
According to the former minister, he was also surprised by his firing – and he was even more surprised by the far-reaching consequences of the move.
He told eNCA that the statement from the presidency giving reasons for the move was a public statement, and that he has “no reason to speculate on any other reason other than what the President said”.
