Top ANC officials have clashed over the mandate of the South African Reserve Bank after party Secretary-General Ace Magashule said the mandate of the Bank will be expanded.
However, Magashule’s statement on Tuesday elicited a denial from Finance Minister Tito Mboweni and ANC head of economic transformation Enoch Godongwana.
Hours after Magashule had told journalists at Luthuli House that the National Executive Committee (NEC) had agreed at its weekend lekgotla in Irene, Pretoria, that the mandate of the Sarb will be expanded to include employment and growth, Mboweni and Godongwana denied this.
Godongwane said there was no decision to expand the mandate of the Sarb.
He also denied a claim by Magashule that the ANC will set up a task team to look into quantitative easing.
“The statement that suggests that the ANC is intending to set up a committee to investigate the need or otherwise for quantitative easing is inaccurate. In this regard the finance minister and the Governor of the Sarb will continue to assess our economic performance and coordinate macroeconomic policy in the interest of balance and sustainable economic growth. The matter is therefore closed,” said Godongwana.
In a Tweet posted on Tuesday evening Mboweni said there was no decision to change the mandate of the Sarb.
“Government sets the mandate for the Sarb. There is no quantitative easing thing here. The primary mandate of the SA Reserve Bank is to ‘protect the value of the currency in the interest of balanced growth and development,” said Mboweni.
Government sets the mandate for the SARB. There is no quantitative easing thing here. The primary mandate of the SA Reserve Bank is to “protect the value of the currency in the interest of balanced economic growth and development”.
— Tito Mboweni (@tito_mboweni) June 4, 2019