Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
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

UFS Sasol Library will reopen tomorrow
2007-10-17

The University of the Free State’s (UFS) UFS Sasol Library will reopen again tomorrow (Thursday, 18 October 2007) after a limited fire broke out earlier this morning.

The fire broke out at 05:00 on a work site of a contractor that is carrying out maintenance on the library’s air conditioning system in the machinery room underneath the library.

Employees of the subcontractor were busy replacing the isolation of the air-conditioning when the fire broke out. An employee of the contractor died and one was seriously injured.

The contractor is working on the system at night in order to minimise disruption to library users. The building and books were not damaged.

“The UFS and the contractor exercised strict safety measures before the maintenance project commenced and regular safety training sessions are still presented to employees of the contractor working on the site. The latest training session was done on Monday, 15 October 2007,” said Ms Edma Pelzer, Director of Physical Resources at the UFS.

As a precautionary measure, the library will be closed for the rest of today because of the possible presence of fumes in the building as a result of the fire. A decision was taken to be cautious and to make sure that the air is clean before people are allowed in the library.

The Reitz Dining Hall of the Centenary Complex is available as a temporary study facility for students until 18:00 today. The library will be open again tomorrow (Thursday, 18 October 2007) during normal hours.

Ms Pelzer conveyed her sympathy to the next of kin of the person who died during the fire.

Media Release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@ufs.ac.za
17 October 2007
 

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept