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06 March 2020 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo Stephen Collett
Lesetja Kganyago, Governor of the South African Reserve Bank
Reserve Bank Governor, Lesetja Kganyago, presented a public lecture at the UFS on 4 March 2020.

With a 7% fiscal deficit on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) projected by the National Treasury for the 2020/21 financial year, it would not take long to arrive at a dangerous level of debt at the rate that South Africa is borrowing. Although the South African Reserve Bank Governor, Lesetja Kganyago, does not consider a debt to GDP rate of 60% a disaster, he did express his concern regarding the country’s fiscal deficits being over 6% of the GDP.

Governor Kganyago presented a public lecture at the University of the Free State (UFS) on 4 March 2020, focusing on how we should use macro-economic policy and its role in our economic growth problem.

Unsustainable policies 
South Africa’s fiscal situation is not about tight monetary policy. According to the Governor: “Weak growth is endogenous in our fiscal problems. We cannot keep doing what we are doing and hope that growth will recover and save us. Growth is low, in large part, because of unsustainable policy.”

Avoiding an impending crisis
To address the problem, as a policymaker with more than 20 years’ experience, the Governor suggested that the recommendations made by Minister Tito Mboweni be taken into consideration. “The Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni, is a man who says things that are true even when they are unpopular. His message is that we have to reduce spending and he is right to put this at the centre of our macro-economic debate,” said Governor Kganyago.

The state needs a radical economic turnaround strategy which is able to diminish the risk of losing market access and being forced to ask the International Monetary Fund for help. Governor Kganyago is positive that such a reformative tactic would go beyond monetary policy and ensure that the interest bill ceases to claim more of South Africa’s scarce resources. 

News Archive

Arts Festival Rally promises to be great fun
2009-05-20

The annual Amazing Rainbow Rally, presented by the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health and UFS Marketing, will take place on Friday, 17 July 2009 during the Volksblad Arts Festival on the Main Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS) in Bloemfontein.

This year all the checkpoints will be on the campus and around the Arts Festival grounds. Corporate companies in Bloemfontein and departments at the UFS may still enter teams and checkpoints.

The closing date for entering teams is 26 June 2009. A team consists of two team members who must work together to complete a route with various checkpoints. The team, who finishes first after having successfully completed all the tasks, is the winner. Last year, Dr I Babst en Dr L Solomon from the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health were the winners of the Rally.

The closing date for entering a checkpoint is 17 June 2009. Teams must complete tasks at every checkpoint before proceeding to the next checkpoint. The company sponsoring the checkpoint will also be responsible for handling the activity at the checkpoint.

The “Arts Festival” Rally promises to challenge teams physically, mentally and even artistically. Festival goers will also have the opportunity to see what teams get up to and how their favourite team is doing.

The Rally will be presented for the fifth time in 2009. The main goal of this year’s Rally is to raise funds for the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health’s “Beds of Hope Campaign”. This campaign seeks to increase the number of intensive care beds in the paediatric and neonatal wards. Currently around 250 children and babies in central South Africa cannot receive the life-saving care they need because of a lack of facilities.

For more information and entry forms, contact Ms Adéle van Aswegen at 051 401 3535 or e-mail to vanasweg.stg@ufs.ac.za . You can also visit our website at http://bedsofhope.ufs.ac.za  


Media Release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@ufs.ac.za

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