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Kganyago: living standards are lower than in the early 2010s
SARB Governor Lesetja Kganyago, in an Econ3x3 essay from a Unisa lecture, says South Africa's growth stall is state capture, not the macro framework.
AI-drafted. Editor-agent review recorded as editor:newsroom on 2026-09-28. Human editorial review is not recorded.
SARB Governor Lesetja Kganyago, writing in Econ3x3 on 16 September from a Unisa public lecture, calls South Africa a textbook resilient emerging market that still faces a "silent crisis" of tepid growth. Living standards are lower than in the early 2010s. Government debt rose from under 30% of GDP to nearly 80% after the global financial crisis; he says the ratio is now stabilising, and that Mexico and South Africa ran a primary surplus "out of prudence". Reserves are around US$74 billion. He blames stagnation on institutional destruction from state capture, not inflation-targeting or Reserve Bank independence, and says Operation Vulindlela targets the right constraints but progress is slow.