JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa will work to ensure continuity of economic policy while leaving room to manoeuvre to respond to the global financial crisis, new Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Monday.
Shortly after being sworn in, he said that policies in place would help to steer the country through the downturn.
"So there will certainly be continuity but like everywhere else in the world, we have to be mindful of what is going on and also leave ourselves room for responsiveness to what is happening," he told Reuters in an interview.
South African President Jacob Zuma chose the tax authority chief to replace Trevor Manuel as finance minister to guide Africa's biggest economy through what may already be its first recession in 17 years.
Manuel was appointed to head a powerful new planning body, keeping the former finance minister at the heart of policy-making in Zuma's first cabinet.
Gordhan said he needed a few weeks to plan on how the Treasury and new ministries, including the economic development portfolio and national planning commission, would work together.