Tito Mboweni shuns high life for economy class and SA is here for it

South Africans have applauded finance minister Tito Mboweni after a picture of him flying economy class went viral on social media.

The National Treasury confirmed the image was legitimate, posting it on its Twitter page.

It said Mboweni was leading by example.

The post had received more than 3,400 likes, 550 retweets and almost 1,000 comments at the time of publishing this article.

On Facebook, Mboweni said he was "serious about cost management."

"The RULE IN MY OFFICE: If the flight is less than 2 hours, you fly economy class. Today I was on SA 343 to Cape Town. Seat 14C. Ku rough! The National Breadwinner is serious about cost management.

Responding to the picture, many commented that it should be the norm that government officials travel economy.

“It should be a directive that all servants of the people should fly economy locally and business when flying abroad,” wrote Elisama Madzhuta.

“This is a minister who still drives himself around without an army of cars... other government officials should follow as an example,” said Siphiwe Gumede.