EDITORIAL: Hands off Reserve Bank

The dreaded N word — nationalisation — is back. This time it is not targeting the commanding heights of the economy such as mines and commercial banks; rather, it is aimed at taking over the SA Reserve Bank without compensating its 800-odd private shareholders.

In 2018, the EFF tabled a bill which called for the nationalisation of the Bank, granting the finance minister the authority to appoint its non-executive directors. A year earlier, the ANC had resolved to push nationalisation of the Bank, along with another unhelpful resolution that sought the expropriation of land without compensation.

The reasonable side of the ANC, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s faction, soon kicked the Bank’s ownership into touch, and, instead, expended its energies on the land expropriation. It hoped this would win it votes from Julius Malema’s EFF.

These days, the ANC, which is leading the government of national unity (GNU), hardly talks about the public ownership of the Bank. However, the EFF and Jacob Zuma’s MK party have revived the debate about the Bank’s ownership, claiming, without proof, that the ownership issue won them votes in the May elections. The ANC is lukewarm towards the idea. Its GNU partner, the DA, is opposed.

While the Bank’s shareholder structure is an anomaly, there are no clear public benefits for it to be nationalised. There are far more pressing socioeconomic issues that require urgent attention.

Costly public hearings will rattle investors as the land debate did. This debate should stop at once.