President Ramaphosa’s dishonesty regarding Reserve Bank is reckless and causes instability

9 March 2019

The FF Plus condemns President Cyril Ramaphosa's view that the Reserve Bank should be nationalised and that its mandate must not only be directed at controlling inflation.

This statement is contradictory to the President's undertaking toward international investors in Davos and it is the same road that countries like Venezuela and Zimbabwe also walked down. The Rand's reaction to the announcement can be likened to a frightened deer that only narrowly escaped the claws of a lion. That raises the question of whether the Rand's value will simply keep fleeing and if all South Africans will become impoverished as a result.

There is nothing that the ANC touches that is not tainted by self-enrichment and corruption and it will be no different when the ANC government nationalises the Reserve Bank. One cannot help but wonder, and justifiably so, whether the ANC is not just out to get its greedy hands on the foreign currency and other funds in the Reserve Bank.

Just like the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) has utter control and thus ample opportunity to loot the government employee pension fund, the ANC will also have access to the Reserve Bank's funds.

The ANC can simply not be trusted with controlling the Reserve Bank. If the independence of this bank, which is guaranteed in Section 224(2) of the Constitution, is jeopardised in any way by the ANC government, it will do great damage to the Rand, the country's economy and our image in the international investor community.

This step will be opposed in the Constitutional Court and the FF Plus will do everything in its power to foil this plan in the interest of all South Africans.

Statement issued by Adv. Anton Alberts, FF Plus chairperson, 9 March 2019