President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed his deep sadness at the passing of outstanding business leader, Jabu Mabuza. Mr Mabuza passed away on Wednesday, 16 June 2021, from complications associated with COVID-19. He was 63. The President’s thoughts are with Mr Mabuza’s family, friends, business associates, employees and members of his global network of business partners and leaders.

Mr Mabuza is a former Board Chair of Telkom and Eskom. As an entrepreneur and mentor to many, Mr Mabuza built an outstanding career in business, which spanned his entrepreneurship as a taxi driver and owner, and his rise to chairing some of South Africa’s largest industrial groups and multinational enterprises.

He will be remembered for his pathfinder contribution to township and rural economic participation during the apartheid era through his roles in the Southern Africa Black Taxi Association and the Foundation for African Business and Consumer Services (FABCOS).

He also championed black economic participation and inclusive growth through his leadership of Business Leadership South Africa and Business Unity South Africa.

President Ramaphosa said: “COVID-19 has once again struck deep, hard and indiscriminately to deprive our nation of one our finest and most inspiring compatriots.

“Jabu Mabuza was a monumental figure on so many terrains of our national life.

“He provided inspiration and leadership to many, from Daveyton, where he started his illustrious career as a taxi driver, to Davos where he made his presence and values felt in global debates.

“We will miss the warmth of his personality, the forthrightness of his engagement on questions of national importance and the multiple precedents he set and led in the transformation of our economy.

“It is a profound loss that someone who believed so passionately in a better future for our country has been taken from us in the prime of his contribution to our nation.

“May his soul rest in peace.”