Nene had served at national treasury since November 2008 when then-president Kgalema Motlanthe appointed him deputy minister. He took over the finance ministry on May 25 2014‚ a position he held with little notoriety until he was fired on December 9.
Nene had no idea when he walked out the doors of the National Treasury after facing the chop‚ giving over to Des Van Rooyen for a mere weekend‚ that he would come back to his corner office just two years and two months later.
He didn’t want to‚ he said at the time of his reappointment‚ but Ramaphosa convinced him he was the man for the job.
Nene’s axing symbolised both the prime of the Gupta’s capturing of the state and the beginning of the unravelling of their nefarious empire.
The man from Kranskop in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands‚ had represented the ANC in the finance portfolio since 1999‚ first serving as a member of the finance committee in parliament until 2004‚ as co-chairperson of the Joint Budget Committee between 2002 and August 2005 and then as the chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Finance from 2005 until he was appointed deputy minister in 2008.