/ 29 August 2008

Mboweni to step down next year

South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni is to step down next year when his term of office expires, according to Friday’s Business Report.

”I think staying for too long at the head of an organisation might not be a good idea,” he told the newspaper.

Advisory services chief executive Iraj Abedian was quoted as saying that he was not surprised, as Mboweni could not stay on as governor forever.

According to another report in the Pretoria News, Mboweni’s decision to step down was not about the changing of the ANC guard in government, ”nor the challenges that have beset his office in recent years”.

Mboweni’s term at the SA Reserve Bank finishes on August 8 2009.

The Pretoria News reported that Mboweni would not be drawn on his future.

”I don’t know. I don’t know what 50-year-old’s do … All I ever wanted was a Jaguar,” the governor is quoted as saying.

The report added that Mboweni would pursue trout fishing at his second home in Limpopo and devote time to two biographers who began ”tracking his life a few years ago”. – Sapa