JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — The new president named his Cabinet on Sunday, moving the country’s widely respected finance minister to a new position that will still give the official a role steering the economy on a course intended to reassure international investors.
The decision to shift Trevor Manuel, who had become the emblem of South Africa’s impressive economic performance over the past 13 years, to a new post was a delicate matter for President Jacob Zuma. Rumors last year that Manuel had resigned caused the nation’s currency, the rand, to tumble.
But Zuma appointed Manuel to a potentially more powerful job, putting him in charge of strategic government planning and coordination of all ministries.
“Comrade Trevor Manuel has been given a new structure, a very powerful structure that is going to work out a national plan of government,” Zuma said at a news conference Sunday.
