Why South Africa’s ANC Aims to Take On the Central Bank

South Africa’s ruling party isn’t done shaking things up yet. The next target is the country’s central bank, one of the few in the world that’s still owned by private shareholders. In December, the African National Congress ratified a proposal for the state to own the South African Reserve Bank, which has been in investors’ hands since its founding in 1921. Supporters say this would simply be fixing “an anomaly;” critics say the move could shake faith in an institution that’s been seen as being above politics.

The ANC says that it just wants to bring the Reserve Bank into line with how other nations’ central banks operate. Yet some see politics at work behind the move. At the same party meeting where the ANC ratified plans to nationalize the central bank, it also picked Cyril Ramaphosa to head the party and pledged changes to the constitution to expropriate land without compensation. While Ramaphosa has since replaced Jacob Zuma as president of the country, the party doesn’t want to be seen as turning its back on Zuma’s promises for “radical economic transformation” to accelerate the spread of wealth to the black majority. In June, the nation’s anti-corruption ombudsman said the bank’s inflation-targeting mandate should be changed to also include “the socioeconomic well-being of the citizens,” though a court backed the central bank’s request to have this instruction set aside.