The Cabinet has appointed a permanent chairperson for the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) more than two years after the bank operated with an acting chair.
Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni announced on Monday that former Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool would take over as chairperson of the bank.
Rasool, former South African ambassador to the US, was already one of DBSA’s independent non-executive directors, since November 30, 2022.
Professor Mark Swilling has been acting as the interim chairperson of the DBSA board since September 2021 after Enoch Godongwana resigned following his appointment as Minister of Finance.
“Cabinet announces the appointment of Mr Ebrahim Rasool as the chairperson of the Development Bank of Southern Africa,” Ntshavheni said.
Rasool holds a BA and a Higher Diploma in Education from UCT, an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from the Roosevelt University in Chicago, US, and an honorary doctorate in Public Service from Chatham University in Pittsburgh, US.
Rasool is an anti-apartheid activist and social services leader. He has led various government departments including health, welfare, finance and economic development in the capacity of provincial minister.
The DBSA is a state-owned development finance institution mandated to promote economic growth and regional integration by mobilising financial and other resources from national and international private and public sectors for sustainable development projects and programmes in South Africa, the SADC, and the rest of Africa.
The 40-year-old bank has grown in leaps and bounds since the democratic dispensation, with its annual loan disbursements rising from R717 million in 1994 to R12.9 billion in 2022, and shareholder’s equity growing from R4.5bn to R42.9bn in the same period.
From 2002 to 2022 alone, the bank, through its infrastructure build process, has built and refurbished 726 schools, and completed 404 health facilities and 456 social houses, facilitating the creation of more than 37 000 jobs in 2022 alone, compared with only 300 jobs in 1994.
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