Anti-apartheid activist and politician. Appointed regional secretary and national executive member of the UDF, 1983. Between 1985 and 1990, he was repeatedly detained without trial or placed under house arrest for his political activities. Elected to Parliament in 1994 and appointed minister of trade and industry by Mandela. South Africa’s longest serving finance minister, he served under Mandela in 1996 and also served under Thabo Mbeki and then Kgalema Motlanthe until 2009. Between 2009 and 2014 he served as minister in the presidency for the National Planning Commission under Jacob Zuma. Chaired the International Monetary Fund’s Development Committee. Special envoy for development finance for UN Secretaries-General Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-Moon. Co-chaired the Transitional Committee of the Green Climate Fund, 2011, a UN fund to help poorer nations combat and adapt to climate change.