Page 138 - SARB: 100-Year Journey

The first 73 years
In the first 73 years of its existence, the SARB was an institution steeped in the contours that shaped the country’s political and social history. The arc of this history begins at the end of the British colonial era with the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910. In subsequent years, white political power was consolidated, and materialised in the 1948 electoral victory of the National Party.
Consequently, the political conditions in the country deteriorated with each passing decade, from the 1950s and the 1960s to the 1970s, as apartheid became more draconian and the security state repressed uprisings. Raids, riots and resistance, as well as political bans, became the norm. The intensification of the domestic struggle against apartheid and increasing international pressure applied on the autocratic South African state in the 1980s began chipping away at the edifice of a racially stratified society. Indeed, in the 1980s − the eventful decade of political uprisings, sanctions and the debt standstills − the apartheid project was headed for rapid collapse.
Between 1910 and 1948, political power changed hands among the white-led parties. However, that 38-year period was characterised by consistent legislative changes aimed at excluding population groups which were not white from democratic and economic participation. This exclusion extended to the erasure of other population groups from official reporting. The South African employment statistics of old, for example, only featured the white population.
The SARB mirrored the society in which it was founded. It took 88 years for a woman to be appointed SARB Governor. For much of its history, women staff at the SARB were relegated to administrative positions at considerably less pay compared to men. They were there to enhance the ‘ambience’ and added ‘cheer’, but not much else. This was reflected in the fact that women did not make it to the top ranks of the institution during the SARB’s first 75 years. Although these women were white, their gender precluded them from enjoying equal status to their white male colleagues.
During this time, the SARB existed as an all-white, English-speaking institution. In later years, Afrikaans gradually took over and enjoyed institutional dominance. However, this remained to the exclusion of other population groups. Initially, black people were excluded outright from the employment of the SARB. As times changed, however, the central bank began opening up incrementally to black people, but that was to the lower rungs in the category of general labour. The professional sphere was out of reach for black people.
A vintage colour illustration of King George V and Queen Mary celebrating a united Union of South Africa which was created from the Cape and Natal colonies as well as the republics of the Orange Free State and Transvaal on 31 May 1910. /Getty Images
South Africans march and hold banners in Johannesburg to protest against new restrictions imposed on black citizens, soon to be known worldwide as apartheid, implemented by the white minority government of D F Malan. During the Malan administration (1948–1954) existing informal discrimination was systematically made law and the remaining electoral, housing, civil and employment rights of black citizens were dismantled. /FPG/Getty Images
128