Page 159 - SARB: 100-Year Journey

itself to public scrutiny. Also noteworthy is that Mboweni steered the institution when inflation targeting was adopted as official policy amid vociferous criticism, including from within the SARB. On transforming the SARB’s internal dynamics and cultural idiosyncrasies, Mboweni’s efforts elicit divided opinions.
Undoubtedly, Mboweni infused a new energy into the Bank and set the stage for his successors to do more at the institution. Mboweni counts Gill Marcus, Dr Renosi Mokate, Daniel Mminele, Ian Plenderleith and Brian Kahn among his prominent recruits and colleagues. Dr XP Guma served as Mboweni’s adviser, and also fulfilled the roles of Deputy Governor and Senior Deputy Governor at the SARB.
Dr Renosi Mokate. /SARB Daniel Mminele. /SARB
In Mboweni’s time, the SARB broke into international forums. South Africa’s normalisation of relations with, and re-entry into, global financial structures deepened.
Stals and Mboweni were products of their time and environment. This was apparent in each Governor’s distinctive approach. The hallmark of Stals’s tenure was the SARB mounting a vigorous defence of the currency with varying degrees of success. Mboweni took the opposite course. Mboweni ended the practice, and sent a powerful signal to the market that the central bank would not be embroiled in skirmishes with foreign currency dealers in defence of the rand. Mboweni deemed the exercise futile.
Guma’s observation was that Stals had come from an era of the “big men in banking: the Paul Volckers, the Alan
Greenspans, the Hans Tietmeyers from the Deutsche Bundesbank, the Eddie Georges at the Bank of England. That was an era where power tended to be centralised very much in the person of the Governor.”
Stals had worked with a committee of deputy governors, known as the Governor’s Committee, which he chaired. “But it was always very clear that the final decision would be one for the Governor, and that wasn’t peculiar to South Africa,” Guma explained.
Hence, the significance of the MPC and the expanded scope of the Governor’s Committee. The MPC was one of the first innovations Mboweni introduced at the SARB. Notably, the MPC included individuals other than the governors,
Ian Plenderleith. /SARB
representing a major shift to the manner in which the central bank had operated. The Governor’s Committee is now known as the Governors’ Executive Committee (GEC), and oversees the SARB’s management and administra- tive affairs.
Those two changes meant that the heads of department, operating through their respective deputy governors, felt they had a greater say and could bring perspectives to decision-making forums. That had previously not been done. “There was a greater openness at the time of Mboweni, and I’m not saying that in criticism of Chris Stals. He [Stals] did what was considered normal in that period. Similarly, when Mboweni came in, this was the trend right across the world, for decisions to be taken by committees rather than ‘big men’,” Guma said.
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