10 years

A decade of Trevor Manuel

The doomsayers were out when Trevor Manuel was appointed finance minister in 1996. Ten years later, and he has achieved the impossible
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Smile as your teeth are pulled
The only good tax is an old tax. The saying reflects investors' and planners' need for certainty. To cater for this need, at a time when the country was undergoing many changes, Trevor Manuel initially made few significant changes to tax legislation, apart from introducing the SA Revenue Service Act of 1997, which paved the way for the establishment of a super tax collection agency.
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How he did it
Trevor Manuel has hardly referred to Gear over the past few years. But the Growth, Employment & Redistribution framework was undeniably the basis of his success. It set the direction for Manuel's reform initiative, targeting lower government spending, lower deficits, lower inflation and lower interest rates over a five-year period.
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What will Trevor do next?
After his spectacular success as SA's first ANC finance minister, Trevor Manuel faces perhaps the biggest personal challenge of his career. What can he do for an encore? Though another few years at national treasury seem assured, at least until 2009, independent analyst Gavin Lewis is one of those predicting that Manuel will quit his post "sooner rather than later" and head for the World Bank.
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