Johannesburg - Former president Thabo Mbeki has warned about the ANC’s call for the nationalisation of the SA Reserve Bank, saying it would not result in any material achievement.
Mbeki was speaking at the Gauteng ANC pavilion at the Rand Easter Show in Nasrec, south of Johannesburg, where he declared his intention to vote and campaign for the ANC in the upcoming election.
Since his defeat by his successor, Jacob Zuma, at the 2007 national conference in Polokwane and his recall by the party in 2008, Mbeki has not been active in ANC politics.
He said while he found it impossible to campaign for the party under Zuma due to wrongdoings, President Cyril Ramaphosa and his government demonstrated a commitment of addressing the party’s challenges.
“It is in that context that it becomes possible to come back and to be active publicly like this,” he said.
However, he criticised the party’s 2017 national conference resolution which called for the nationalisation of the Reserve Bank.
“I don’t know what anybody would gain by that nationalisation of the Reserve bank, except to say we have nationalised. Nothing would change in terms of the behaviour of the Reserve Bank, nothing,” Mbeki said.
He said while many in support of the move said they wanted the central bank to move away from inflation targeting, nationalising it would not result in policy change.
“Inflation targeting is not the decision of the Reserve Bank. It is a decision of the South African government. It is the government which said there must be inflation targeting and these are the targets between three and six percent. That is government and the Reserve bank implements,” he said.
Political Bureau