Creating pool of talent is a point of pride

TITO Mboweni counts among the successes of his tenure as Reserve Bank governor that the bank has been able to retain 75 per cent of its recruits, since 1999.

‘A lesson that we learnt is that you can parachute many black people into the top of the institution but they don’t stay long. The ones who are coming through the ranks are the ones that stay.’Mboweni was criticised for comments in September 2006 about the high turnover among top black staff.’I got so upset, I said to people I am stopping this recruitment of black people. I am okay with my Afrikaners. They stay and do the work and become experts,’ Mboweni said.The bank has a number of programmes for training young people, including one for school leavers unable to afford university, which have provided a pool of talent for the bank.However, Mboweni admitted disappointment that the Centre for Economics Journalism in Africa at Rhodes University, which is funded by the Reserve Bank, attracted little interest among local students. He said eight out of 10 people applying to enter are not South Africans.’Now I have made a rule that all programmes we sponsor must have 80 per cent South Africans.’Mboweni spoke of two low points in his time at the helm of the bank.’Number one was the currency depreciation of 2001.’ After the terror attack on the World Trade Centre in New York the rand reached an intra-day weak point of N$13,85 to the dollar.Even worse for Mboweni was when former president Thabo Mbeki, under pressure from Kevin Wakeford, then the president of the SA Chamber of Business, appointed a commission of inquiry to investigate the currency’s weakness.’And I ended up being the major witness. I didn’t cause the thing to collapse,’ he said indignantly. ‘So if there is one thing I can criticise president Mbeki for it is for agreeing to that commission of inquiry. I don’t think he should have.’A second low point was when Mboweni ‘had to ask a member of senior staff to leave. Why? Because they didn’t want to fit into post-apartheid South Africa. It’s terrible to have to tell somebody: ‘don’t come to work on Monday’.’- Business Report