The tragedy of the Thabi Leoka CV drama is that nobody would have cared that she didn’t have a PhD, whether from the London School of Economics or any other institution.

Many if not most of SA’s private sector economists have good master’s degrees, not doctorates. One just has to look at the award-winning economists who top the lists of the Financial Mail annual analysts awards or the Reuters’ economist of the year. There is plenty of real world research and experience there. There are not a lot of doctoral theses. Likewise in the public sector, where SA has world-renowned central bankers and Treasury officials whose macroeconomic expertise is highly regarded, whether they had MSc or PhD after their names. ..

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