President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed members of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), with former economic advisor to the President, Trudi Makhaya returning for a second stint after she completed her five-year tenure and left her position on 30 April 2023.
The 19-member PEAC will guide the 7th administration in its pursuit of rapid, inclusive and sustainable economic growth and job creation.
The Presidency on Friday night said Ramaphosa has set up the Council to ensure greater coherence and consistency in the implementation of economic policy and ensure that the government and society in general are better equipped to respond to changing economic circumstances.
The Council, a non-statutory and independent body chaired by the President, advises the President and the government more broadly, helping the development and implementation of economic policies that spur inclusive growth.
It comprises prominent economists and technical experts in international economics; macroeconomics (including fiscal policy and monetary economics); labour economics; economics of education and the economics of poverty and inequality and urban development.
Other areas of insights entail microeconomics with a focus on network industries, regulation and competition, trade, energy and climate change.
Council members:
– Dr Renosi Mokate, who served as the first deputy chair of the Council, has been appointed as the deputy chairperson. Presently, she occupies the position of executive chair of Concentric Alliance and chair of the Government Employees Pension Fund.
– Dr Antonio Andreoni is Professor of Development Economics at the Department of Economics of SOAS University of London and Co-Director of the Centre for Sustainable Structural Transformation (CSST). As co-Director of CSST Antonio focuses on four inter-linked research areas – energy transition, mineral resources, reorganisation of the international supply chain, and construction of new infrastructure.
– Professor Haroon Bhorat is Professor of Economics and Director of the Development Policy Research Unit at the University of Cape Town. His research interests cover labour economics, poverty and income distribution.
– Dr Kenneth Creamer is a senior lecturer in the School of Economics and Finance at Wits University. His teaching and research focuses on macroeconomics, growth and the just energy transition. Dr Creamer has written various academic papers and popular articles on economic and development policy in South Africa.
– Professor Esther Duflo is the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics in the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In her research, she seeks to understand the economic lives of the poor, with the aim to help design and evaluate social policies. Prof Duflo has received numerous academic honours and prizes including the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences (with co-Laureates Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer).
– Professor Vusi Gumede is currently the Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Development and Business Sciences at the University of Mpumalanga. For 11 years, he held various senior government positions before joining academia.
– Professor Alan Hirsch is Emeritus Professor at The Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at UCT and founding director of the School, 2011 - 2019.
– Ms Mamokete Lijane is the Chair at Economic Research South Africa (ERSA) and a Strategist in Global Markets at Standard Bank CIB, with 22 years’ experience as an analyst in financial markets. She has a deep interest in the intersection between public policy, economics, and financial markets.
– Trudi Makhaya is the senior advisor at the Boston Consulting Group. She served as economic advisor to President Cyril Ramaphosa from 2018 to 2023, during which time she also served as South Africa’s G20 Sherpa. Before taking up this role she led Makhaya Advisory, a boutique consulting firm with a focus on helping business navigate economic policy, including competition policy.
– Professor Mariana Mazzucato is Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London (UCL), where she is founding director of the Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose (IIPP). She is the author of three highly acclaimed books including the newly released Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism. She advises policy makers around the world on innovation-led, inclusive and sustainable growth, including as Chair of the WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All.
– Isaah Mhlanga is the chief economist and Head of Global Markets Research for Rand Merchant Bank (RMB). He leads a team of economists, analysts and strategists covering macroeconomics, fixed income, currencies, commodities and credit across South Africa and several key African countries to serve the bank and its institutional and corporate clients.
– Kuben Naidoo was until recently a Deputy Governor of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and a member of the Monetary Policy Committee. He is the head of corporate payment channels at Investec.
– Zeph Nhleko is the chief economist of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), where he coordinates corporate strategy, knowledge management, research and economics. He began his career as an economist at the South African Reserve Bank.
– Professor Dani Rodrik is Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy at the Harvard Kennedy School. He has published widely in the areas of economic development, international economics, and political economy. His current research focuses on employment and economic growth, in both developing and advanced economies.
– Wandile Sihlobo is the chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa and the author of Finding Common Ground: Land, Equity, and Agriculture. He is a member of the Council of Statistics of South Africa (Stats SA) and a Commissioner at the International Trade Commission of South Africa (ITAC).
– Dr Vera Songwe is a non-resident senior fellow in the Africa Growth Initiative at the Brookings Institution. She is a former Under-Secretary-General at the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
– Professor Fiona Tregenna holds the DST/NRF South African Research Chair in Industrial Development, and is a Professor of Economics at the University of Johannesburg. Her primary research interest is in issues of structural change, deindustrialisation and industrial development.
– Professor Imraan Valodia, an economist, is Dean of the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, and Director of the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (Wits). His research interests include inequality, gender, competition policy and industrial development, and employment in developing countries. Valodia is a part-time member of the Competition Tribunal in South Africa. He is also a Commissioner of the National Minimum Wage Commission.
– Professor Ingrid Woolard is Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences and Professor of Economics at Stellenbosch University. Woolard’s areas of research interest include the measurement of poverty and inequality, unemployment, social protection and fiscal policy.
“President Ramaphosa has expressed his appreciation to the members of the Council for their willingness to contribute to South Africa’s economic development with their strategic insight and counsel,” said the Presidency.
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