Page 174 - SARB: 100-Year Journey
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Deploying monetary policy tools in response to a crisis: 2008–09 to 2020
In 2009, Gill Marcus (2009−2014) was appointed Governor of the SARB, making history as the first woman to lead the institution. Marcus entered the central bank at the peak of the global financial crisis. The former Governor counts Deputy Governor Kuben Naidoo, Governor Lesetja Kganyago (2014−present), Deputy Governor Dr Rashad Cassim, and former deputy governors Francois Groepe, Daniel Mminele, Dr Renosi Mokate and Dr XP Guma among her prominent colleagues.
Kganyago re-entered the central bank in 2011 as a Deputy Governor and succeeded Marcus in 2014. A shared commonality between Kganyago and Dr Chris Stals is that both served as the Director-General of Finance, albeit in different epochs.
Although the story of Kganyago’s governorship is still being written as he is the current incumbent, there are also striking similarities between his second term in office and Marcus’s tenure with reference to the deployment of monetary policy tools to mitigate the effects of crises, actions instituted to maintain financial stability, and reforms effected to the regulatory architecture of the financial sector. In fact, Kganyago was the Deputy Governor entrusted with overseeing the central bank’s policy work to reform financial sector regulation during Marcus’s time.
Indeed, Marcus, who was appointed in the middle of the global financial crisis, was confronted with a demand shock; and Kganyago faced the COVID-19 crisis, which was both a supply and a demand shock.
In providing an overview of both crises and, by extension, a review of the governorships of Marcus and Kganyago, and the central bank’s response, Kganyago, Naidoo, Cassim and Tshazibana, among others, are relied upon. They constitute the current top leadership of the SARB, and shouldered the responsibility of implementing monetary policy tools and measures to support financial stability during the onset of COVID-19 at the beginning of 2020.
Kganyago, Naidoo and Tshazibana are all National Treasury alumni, while Cassim first cut his teeth in academia and then at Statistics South Africa. Furthermore, Tshazibana and Naidoo have both served as advisers to governors Kganyago and Marcus respectively.
Marcus, Kganyago and Naidoo were appointed to the upper echelons of the SARB during the President Jacob Zuma era. Kganyago was re-appointed Governor for a second five-year term by President Cyril Ramaphosa. The same applies to Naidoo, who is serving a second term as Deputy Governor. Naidoo is also the Prudential Authority Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Cassim and Tshazibana were appointed deputy governors under the Ramaphosa administration.
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Governor Gill Marcus. /Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters via Alamy