55-year old Nene “luck” Nhlanhla has been appointed South Africa’s first black Finance Minister after he served as a Deputy under his predecessor, Pravin Gordhan, for five years.

With about 15 years experience in the insurance industry, Nene, a former parliamentarian and chair of the finance portfolio committee is one of the respected voices in the South African finance industry.

During the apartheid regime, Nene organised the first strike in South Africa’s financial sector.

As the country’s new Finance Minister, he plans to follow Gordhan’s footstep in bringing down the country’s budget deficit to at least 3 percent and also work towards achieving the National Treasury’s already established three-year fiscal framework.

The fiscal policy is in line with the country’s 20-year National Development Plan that aims to reduce unemployment to 14 percent by the end of this present decade.

Meanwhile, South Africa also recorded another laudable achievement as it appoints its first openly gay cabinet minister, Lynne Brown as Public Enterprises minister.

52-year old Cape Town born Lynne Brown was the former premier of Western Cape until her party lost control to Democratic Alliance five years ago.

Brown’s appointment has been described by The Guardian as “a symbolic step a continent enduring a homophobic backlash.”