DAVID MAYNIER: Kganyago protects Bank from nutters and the ill-informed

Comandante Fidel Castro learned the hard way that the calibre of the person who leads the central bank matters. He, after all, appointed Che Guevara as the president of the national bank in Cuba. It was a disaster. Guevara was more comfortable organising firing squads and stealing other men’s wives than he was with central banking. Unsurprisingly, he achieved very little besides ordering a 32-storey national bank to be built without stairs, and with half the number of required toilets, on the waterfront in Havana. We are fortunate, in contrast, to have a person of the calibre of Lesetja Kganyago leading the South African Reserve Bank. He is the chairman of the International Monetary and Fiscal Committee; was awarded Central Banking’s Governor of the Year 2018 award; and, unlike many of his fellow governors, has a keen sense of humour. However, most important of all, he has been courageous in his robust defence of the Bank. Until now, the problem has been attacks on the Bank from the...