ANC's threat to SARB's independence erodes economic stability
18 July 2023
South Africa faces an escalating cost-of-living crisis as inflation rises and our Rand weakens. This crisis indiscriminately afflicts every South African and the economically vulnerable bear the brunt.
This week, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) is expected to strategize on monetary policy interventions to mitigate the ANC-inflicted economic crisis.
It is reported that the ANC has directed Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana to 'instruct' the SARB to manage inflation without raising interest rates. This unsolicited intervention is a gross breach of the independence that underpins the SARB's decision-making mandate. The SARB must exercise this constitutional mandate based on independent economic assessments alone and not on the politically expedient whims of the government.
The ANC’s brazen attempt to blame the SARB for its self-induced cost-of-living crisis is transparently disingenuous. It's not the SARB’s duty to redress the ANC's fiscal policy failings. The core problem lies in the fact that our economy is not growing. A direct result of the ANC’s failed economic policy.