Johannesburg – Professor Christopher Malikane, who irked
Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba after calling for the nationalisation of mines
and banks, is an award-wining academic.
Malikane joined National Treasury as an advisor to Gigaba
after a Cabinet shuffle at the end of March, which saw former Finance Minister
Pravin Gordhan axed, to be replaced by Gigaba.
According to the University of Witwatersrand’s website,
he is an associate professor at the university and holds several degrees,
including an MCom, BSc, an MA and a PhD.
Malikane is the Director of the Macro-Financial Analysis
Group at the School of Economic and Business Sciences at the University of the
Witwatersrand, according to his Who’s Who profile.
Read also: Gigaba reins in controversial Prof Malikane
This profile also notes he holds a PhD in Economics
obtained from the New School for Social Research, New York in 1997 and won the Edith Henry Johnson Memorial Award in 1997
for “Outstanding PhD Dissertation in Economics”.
A government site adds he has done research on
macroeconomics, monetary economics, financial economics, development economics,
political economy, growth and business cycles.
National Treasury on Tuesday said the piece that caused
the consternation, published in the Sunday Times, was written in his personal
capacity as an academic and activist.
“The views expressed in the opinion piece are not
necessarily government policy. Professor Malikane is within his rights as an
academic and an activist to contribute ideas to national discourse on any
subject.”
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