Career/Positions/Memberships/Other Activities

Part of a youth movement that attempted to launch a bus boycott across all townships of the Western Cape (1975)
Initiated a community newsletter entitled "Kenfacs" in the townships of Kensington/Factreton, the newsletter was used as a basis for community organisation around a series of civic issues (1979)
Part of a group who initiated the first community newspaper “Grassroots” (1980)
Active in bringing together a number of Parents Supporting Committee which were formed to generate community support for school boycotts
General Secretary of the Cape Areas Housing Action Committee (1981)
Regional Secretary and National Executive Member of the United Democratic Front (UDF) (1983)
Repeatedly detained without trial or placed under house arrest, spending a total of 35 months in detention for these activities (1985 - February 1990)
Employed with the Mobil Foundation as a Policy Manager on Entrepreneurial and Community evelopment (May 1989)
Elected to full-time office in the ANC (August 1991)
Appointed as Head of the ANC's Department of Economic Planning (1991)
Minister of Trade and Industry (1994 - 3 April 1996)
Appointed to the Advisory Committee of the United Nations (UN) Initiative for Trade Efficiency (August 1994)
Governor on the Board of the World Bank, African Development Bank Group and Development Bank of Southern Africa
Chairman of the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund at Annual meetings in Prague in September 2000
Chair of the Development Committee of the World Bank (November 2001 to September 2005)
Served as Special Envoy to the Secretary-General, UN for the Conference on Financing for Development, held in Monterrey, Mexico from 18-20 March 2002
Appointed as Commissioner in the International Task Force on Global Public Goods (May 2003)
Served as a Commissioner in the Commission for Africa from 2004 until 2005
Served on the Commission on Growth and Development as a Commissioner from 2006 until 2008
Chaired the G-20 meetings (November 2007)
Appointed Special Envoy for development finance by the United Nations Secretary General Mr Ban Ki Moon in May 2008
Installed as Chancellor of the Cape Peninsula University of Cape Town in August 2008

Awards/Presentations/Bursaries

Elected by the World Economic Forum as a Global Leader for Tomorrow (January 1994)
Awarded the Africa Prize by the German Africa Foundation, jointly with the then South African Minister of Finance, Derek Keys (September 1994)
Named Euromoney's African Finance Minister of the year (1997)
Inducted as a member of South African Academy of Engineering (February 2001)
Doctorate of Commerce honoris causa from University of Stellenbosch (December 2001)
Doctorate of Commerce honoris causa from University of the Western Cape (March 2002)
Doctorate of Technology honoris causa from Peninsula Technikon (March 2002)
Doctorate of Technology honoris causa from Technikon South Africa (November 2002)
Doctorate of Economics honoris causa from University of Natal (April 2003)
Doctorate of Technology honoris causa from Free State Technikon (2003)
Awarded Johannesburg Press Association Newsmaker of the year for 2005
Doctorate of Law honoris causa from Rhodes University (April 2006)
Presidential award by the Institute of Personnel Management (IPM), Johannesburg (October 2006)
Management Excellence Award (MANEX) by Wits Business School (October 2006)
Awarded the Africa Finance Minister of the Year (2007)
Awarded the Woodrow Wilson Public Service Award (2008)

Career/Positions/Memberships/Other Activities

Part of a youth movement that attempted to launch a bus boycott across all townships of the Western Cape (1975)
Initiated a community newsletter entitled "Kenfacs" in the townships of Kensington/Factreton, the newsletter was used as a basis for community organisation around a series of civic issues (1979)
Part of a group who initiated the first community newspaper “Grassroots” (1980)
Active in