Former Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, steps down from Old Mutual as chairman.
Image: Werner Beukes | Independent Newspapers
Trevor Manuel’s retirement from Old Mutual as chairman at the close of its annual general meeting in June is not just a boardroom change.
It marks the exit of one of the last first-generation architects of South Africa’s post-apartheid economic framework from frontline leadership.
Roger Jardine, businessman and former director-general in the Department of Science and Technology, is set to take over following a structured handover period. He later moved into the private sector and is best known as former chief executive of Aveng, where he led a major restructuring during a difficult period.
Over three decades, Trevor Manuel helped shape early economic policy, ran the National Treasury for 13 years, led the country’s long-term planning framework, and later anchored corporate governance at scale.
Manuel, born in 1956 in Cape Town, joined Old Mutual in 2016 as a non-executive director and became chairman in 2018, taking the role as the group emerged from its managed separation and broader restructuring. His appointment brought policy credibility and governance experience as the insurer reset its structure and strategy.
During his tenure, he led board renewal, succession planning and key executive appointments, helping stabilise leadership after years of structural change.
This included navigating the 2019 dispute involving former chief executive Peter Moyo, one of the most significant governance tests faced by the group in recent years.
In June 2019, Old Mutual fired Moyo over a conflict of interest linked to NMT Capital; he won a court order for reinstatement, triggering a protracted legal battle that ended in December 2019 when the High Court ruled in Old Mutual’s favour.
At government level, Manuel was appointed finance minister in 1996 under Nelson Mandela and retained the role under Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe, becoming one of the longest-serving finance ministers globally.
Manuel, who is married to former Absa CEO Maria Ramos, was initially Minister of Trade and Industry for two years.
His tenure coincided with fiscal consolidation, declining debt levels and sustained economic growth in the 2000s, helping entrench South Africa’s credibility with global investors.
Manuel entered politics in the 1980s, when he was an active member of the United Democratic Front working on housing and civic mobilisation in Cape Town.
Having trained as a civil engineering technician, Manuel found himself working with the ANC’s internal economic planning team during transition talks.
After leaving the National Treasury in 2009, he moved to the Presidency where he headed the National Planning Commission and oversaw the development of the National Development Plan, which remains a reference point for economic reform despite uneven implementation.
Manuel left government in 2014 and transitioned into business and advisory roles, including at Rothschild & Co, before joining Old Mutual. As chairman, he oversaw the group’s post-separation stabilisation and governance reset, helping position it as a focused pan-African financial services player.
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