[4] Both her parents were anti-apartheid activists and members of the South African Communist Party (SACP).
She completed her degree by correspondence with the University of South Africa, with a BComm in Industrial Psychology in 1976.
She was elected a Member of Parliament in 1994 and became Deputy Minister of Finance in the Government of National Unity of Nelson Mandela from 1996 to 1999, serving under Trevor Manuel.
[3][8] She then held the Professorship of Leadership and Gender Studies at the Gordon Institute of Business Science, before going into business, initially as chairman of Western Areas mining company and later as non-executive director of Gold Fields.
[3] In July 2009, President Jacob Zuma announced that she would return to the Reserve Bank to succeed Mboweni as Governor.