The South African Reserve Bank hosted its 2024 Talk to the SARB edition at the Soweto Theatre, Jabulani on June 04.
The forum provided an opportunity for the monetary policy, led by Governor Lesetja Kganyago to engage with the residents of Soweto.
Speaking to the attendees, Governor Kganyago assured the public that that no matter how a new coalition government will look like, the central bank will continue to pursue its mandate to protect the value of the currency in the interest of a balanced and sustainable economic growth in the country.
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He said, “We as the Reserve Bank will continue to deliver on that mandate irrespective of how our post- election politics plays out.
Whatever the outcome in the next two weeks as political parties jointly form government, the SARB will continue to work with our colleagues in the national treasury as well as fellow regulators.
“And we will continue to account to Parliament and continue to work for the betterment of all South Africans.”
One of the addressed questions was from a resident, Nambeni Foxine who had concerns about illegal immigrants who are in charge of the township economy but are making no financial contributions to the nation.
He said, “Most of the undocumented foreigners are literally controlling the township economy and they are not bankable which means they are not taxable and they are not contributing to the country’s fiscal.
“Is the SARB not concerned about the capital flight and what measures have you put in place to address that?”
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Answering the question was head of economic research, Chris Loewald who stated that the illegal side of cash movement is very hard to grasp and strictly speaking it’s not on SARB’s power to try and manage.
Meanwhile, Deputy Governor and member of the Monetary Policy Committee, Mampho Modise, eliminated any lingering uncertainty over the impending implementation of the recently passed National Health Insurance (NHI) Act.
Modise stated that the NHI was meant for the basic governance of the health sector and public hospitals to meet private sector standards, improvements of infrastructure at main hospitals and tightening of procurement policies.
“Once all that is in place, with public hospitals in private sector standards, then we can start looking at the implementation. It is not a bad policy but we still have a long way to go to implement it,” she said.
