Reserve Bank sniffs at ANC’s plan to nationalise it
Changing the ownership structure of the Bank ‘could raise the level of risk and uncertainty for [SA] in both a financial and economic policy sense’, the Bank says
The South African Reserve Bank rebuffed demands by the ANC for the state to nationalise the institution, arguing that it would be a damaging, costly and a “cosmetic” exercise, wasting money. The ANC made the demand for the ownership of the Bank to be taken away from private owners at the end of its elective conference, where the presidency of the ANC was won by Cyril Ramaphosa. Ramaphosa is commonly seen as business friendly, while the organisation’s former president, Jacob Zuma, has overseen a faltering economy.
The ANC said the government it led must develop a proposal to ensure full public ownership in a way that “does not benefit private shareholder speculators”. The Bank pointed out that its mandate was in no way influenced by private shareholders owning no more than 10,000 shares each of the 2-million in issue and which attracted dividend payments of R200,000 a year...
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