South African Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago says the easiest way to destroy price stability in South Africa is by insisting on lowering interest rates because of unemployment.

He says such a move would result in higher inflation as well as higher unemployment.

Kganyago says implementing structural reforms is the only way to address the country’s unemployment.

He was delivering a virtual public lecture which Stellenbosch University hosted yesterday.

“I am even more painfully aware of a South African disease, we are scared of reform. We make every excuse to avoid it. We emphasise any short-term pain and discount any long-term benefits and then we sit around wondering why our economy is stagnating. Why our young people can’t find jobs, and why we are getting steadily poorer relative to the rest of the world,” adds the Reserve Bank Governor.