SARB mandate meltdown: Mboweni contradicts Ace, Godongwana denies plans

Two of the African National Congress’ most senior minds on economic matters scrambled on Tuesday evening to reassure South African’s that the party’s national executive committee was not considering expanding the mandate of the South African Reserve Bank.

Tito Mboweni and Enoch Godongwana came out late on Tuesday evening to deny any concrete plans or commitments to expanding the Reserve Bank’s mandate, despite reporters being told that that was the case during a briefing of the party’s NEC Lekgotla.

Mboweni tweeted that government determines the mandate of the SARB, implying that the political party’s NEC has little say in that regard.

TimesLIVE also reported on Tuesday evening that Godongwana said the ANC NEC had not come to a decision about expanding the Reserve Bank’s mandate.

ANC secretary general Ace Magashule told reporters in Johannesburg on Tuesday that the governing party’s National Executive Committee resolved at the latest Lekgotla that the Reserve Bank’s mandate should be expanded.

While the NEC is the ANC’s highest decision-making body between national conferences, Mboweni is minister of finance and Godongwana is the party’s chair of the ANC’s sub-committee on economic transformation.

The Lekgotla of the past weekend’s resolution regarding the Reserve Bank is also in beat with a similar resolution from the party’s fifty fourth national conference in 2017.

Mboweni took to Twitter to allude to the mandate of the Reserve Bank remaining the same.

Mboweni also shared an article by TimesLIVE, in which Godongwana denies any decision on expanding the mandate of the Reserve Bank.

“Let us leave the South African Reserve Bank alone to pursue its mandate without fear, favor or prejudice,” he wrote in post on Facebook.