Page 118 - SARB: 100-Year Journey

The South African economy: 1960−1989
By 1960, the apartheid socio-economic re-engineering legislative agenda had neared completion. The next frontier was the formal adaptation and implementation of apartheid policies within government departments and agencies. The political and policy decisions that informed the apartheid doctrine shaped South Africa’s political economy well into the late 1980s.
The period stretching from 1960 to 1989 was one defined by seismic shifts, turmoil and the birth of a new republic. The oil crisis of the 1970s, the collapse of the Bretton Woods system and the debt standstill arrangements affected the South African economy. During this time span, public sector consumption was directed towards bolstering repression efforts and quelling political dissent, instead of investment, while foreign debt multiplied.
That was the socio-economic and political context in which the SARB had to fulfil its duties. Between 1960 and 1989, the SARB was led by Dr Michiel Hendrik de Kock (1945−1962), Dr Gerard Rissik (1962−1967), Dr Theunis Willem ‘Bob’ de Jongh (1967−1980) and Dr Gerhard de Kock (1981−1989), with each of the successive governors facing their own set of unique challenges in the course of their respective tenures.
There are indications of these difficulties in the press coverage of the time, which reflects how the formalisation of apartheid policies within the government apparatus evoked dim views of the political establishment within and outside of South Africa. Some of the aforementioned SARB leaders attracted praise for the institution while others did not escape censure.
In terms of the former sentiment, a Financial Mail (1960) article announcing the appointment of Rissik as a Deputy Governor illustrates this point: “The esteem of the South African Reserve Bank stands high throughout the world, at a time when few South African institutions can make that claim. The considerable financial strains arising from the past month’s events are also being carried with minimum discomfort – because the Reserve Bank is non-partisan and is run by men of ability and high standing.”
As such, “... [during] these years the Bank ... found itself called upon to apply actively a variety of measures at various times and in various ways, taking account constantly of the gradual change in the basic state of the economy.” (South African Reserve Bank, 1971, p 65).
For most of the 1960 to 1989 time frame, gold and diamond mining − the original pillars of South Africa’s mining sector − continued to expand as the country solidified its position as the world’s largest gold producer. Simultaneously, the demand for platinum − first discovered in 1923 on the Bushveld Igneous Complex − rose, driven by the petroleum industry’s move towards improving fuel octane ratings.
The growth in mining had a multiplier effect on the structure of the South African economy. On the one hand, the activities in the sector sparked rapid urban expansion, migration to major cities and towns, and the development of a manufacturing base to support the emerging secondary sectors. On the other hand, the economic diversification, and the progression in the industrial base, required an increasingly sophisticated financial architecture to sustain its momentum. The politics of the time not only prohibited the majority of the population from being
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M H de Kock G Rissik T W de Jongh G P C de Kock Portraits of former SARB Governors. /SARB