6th October, 2014
South Africa’s President on Monday announced deputy governor Lesetja Kganyago will succeed the country’s respected central bank governor Gill Marcus.
“It is my pleasure today to announced by decision to appoint Mr Lesetja Kganyago as governor of the South African Reserve Bank with effect of the 9th of November 2014,” said Zuma at a press conference in Pretoria, the country’s administrative capital.
Kganyago served previously as director general at the National Treasury.
He has the tough task of steering m onetary policy in the country, beset by chronic labour disputes in its mining sector and plagued by an ever-widening account deficit.
In September, Marcus announced she will not be renewing her five-year term after steering Africa’s most developed economy out of a recession in the wake of the global economic meltdown.
During her tenure, Marcus has with sober frankness criticised the government for failing to address systemic problems within South Africa’s economy and society — including unemployment and obscene executive wages — which are hampering growth.
In his acceptance speech, Kganyago said he would continue to follow in the footsteps of Marcus.
“I shall not disappoint,” he said, “I do not have to reinvent anything I just have to carry from where she has left.”
Kganyago praised Marcus’s leadership. “She has guided us through the dangerous forest that is the global economy,” he said. “She knows where the drinking holes are.”
“Elephants don’t forget, we will find those drinking holes because she has guided us through the forest.”