Could this be SA's next finance minister?

Published Aug 28, 2016

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Johannesburg - The man who is tipped to be the next Minister of Finance has come a long way with President Jacob Zuma.

The name Sifiso Buthelezi, has been bandied about in some circles as the man Zuma is likely to announce as the next finance minister.

He was sworn in as a member of parliament in April and currently is on the standing committee on finance.

He has been a member of the ANC from his youth and a commander for Umkhonto we Sizwe. In the mid 1980s he was arrested and imprisoned on Robben Island until 1991.

Buthelezi comes from Mahlabathini in northern KwaZulu-Natal.

He has an academic background in commerce with a masters through the University of Cape Town.

He was Zuma’s economic adviser in 1994 and 1995 when Zuma served as the MEC for Economic Development in KZN.

Later he became a personal assistant to Mathews Phosa, when Phosa was premier of Mpumalanga.

Buthelezi then served on several entities including the National Gambling Board of South Africa, Transnet and Prasa (Passenger Rail Agency of SA) where he was chairman for 10 years.

He is a businessman with a string of companies including Makana Investment Corporation, Sihayo Investments, Automated Fuel Systems, Ndonsa Investments and Mevane Investments.

Makana, 55, has a stake in several radio stations including Heart FM in Cape Town and Gagasi FM in Durban.

From 2002 to 2004 he was the director of Railway Systems of Zambia and Allport of Ghana.

He is active on social media and recently celebrated the ANC’s victory in the local government elections.

He tweeted: “Ha, me I am celebrating ANC resounding victory. I won’t follow the tune of mainstream media reducing the whole country to metros”.

Several attempts by this newspaper to contact him for comment failed.

The Sunday Independent

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