Interview: In Conversation With South Africa’s Central Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago

MILLS SOKO|

The South African Reserve Bank is critical in formulating and implementing monetary policy and ensuring financial stability in the country. In this Wits Business School Leadership Dialogue, Professor Mills Soko talks to Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago about the central bank and the issues that it grapples with on a day-to-day basis.

Mills Soko: When you were appointed as governor one of the first things you did was to go to your village and you went on a shopping spree. What was the significance of this gesture?

Lesetja Kganyago: I felt it was an opportunity to teach people about the value of money. And I went back to the same shop, where every morning I would go and buy bread before going to school. There was an important inflation lesson because at the time – 1972 – a loaf of bread cost 10 cents. And I was