President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced the re-appointment of Lesetja Kganyago as Governor of the South African Reserve Bank for a five-year term.
The President also announced the appointment of Nomfundo Tshazibana and Dr Rashad Cassim as Deputy Governors of the central bank for a five-year term each.
Kganyago’s second term will start on 9 November while Tshazibana and Dr Cassim will assume duty on the first of next month.
The Reserve Bank has welcomed the appointments.
Lesetja has been re-appointed as Governor for a five-year term. Tshazibana and Dr Cassim have also been appointed a five-year term each.
The two positions of Deputy Governor became vacant following the resignation of Francois Groepe in January 2019 and, more recently, the retirement of Daniel Mminele at the end of June 2019.
In a statement, the SARB says it now has a full complement of executives.
Tshazibana is currently serving as an adviser to the Governors of the SARB and is a member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). She is an economist with extensive experience in public policy analysis and formulation, and has worked at the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa), National Treasury, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“At the IMF, she was an Alternate Executive Director on the Executive Board, which runs the day-to-day operations of the IMF. Before joining the IMF, Ms Tshazibana was Head of the Economic Policy and Forecasting Division and Deputy Director-General at National Treasury, where she was responsible for macroeconomic policy, economic forecasting, and compiling the economic outlook that informed the budget preparations. At Nersa, she served as a Senior Policy Analyst and worked on policy options for restructuring the electricity industry. She holds a Masters of Commerce (Economics) degree and a BCom Honours (Economics) degree from the University of Natal,” the statement reads.
Cassim also comes with extensive industry experience. “Dr Cassim is currently Head of Economic Research and Statistics since March 2011 and is also a member of the MPC,” reads the statement in part.
“He is responsible for producing macroeconomic and forecasting research and statistics, and serves as the Secretary of the MPC. He has recently been appointed Chairperson of the Irving Fischer Committee on Central Bank Statistics under the auspices of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Prior to that, he served as the Deputy Director-General responsible for economic statistics at Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) and produced the country’s economic statistics, including inflation and gross domestic product (GDP) numbers. He was instrumental in enhancing both the quality and the credibility of economic statistics.”
Cassim also has an experience in academia. According to the statement, he was also Professor and Head of the School of Economics and Business Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand.
“Dr Cassim has held various research and academic positions at the University of Cape Town (UCT). He holds a PhD in Economics and a Master’s and Honours in Economic History from UCT.”
Kganyago’s second term will start on 9 November 2019, while Tshazibana and Dr Cassim will assume duty on 1 August 2019.
