Reserve Bank bill process challenged

The Reserve Bank was pushing through amendments to its founding act with “unseemly haste”, Charl Kocks, head of African governance ratings agency Afrika Ratings, told MPs yesterday.

His criticism adds to the chorus of complaints by disgruntled Bank shareholders who object to the proposed amendments, intended to limit their power to elect representatives to the Bank’s board.

Countering this opposition during public hearings on the South African Reserve Bank Amendment Bill held by Parliament’s two finance committees were the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) social partners.

Bank warned against shareholder change

It is not only disgruntled private shareholders of the Reserve Bank who are opposing proposed legislative amendments to the way the institution is governed.

An independent think-tank and a university professor have joined the chorus of opposition, on grounds that the proposals would undermine corporate governance and democratisation.

Until now opposition to the South African Reserve Bank Amendment Bill — and its provisions to limit shareholder power — has seemed to emerge from a fringe of noisy shareholders who every year cause a rumpus at the bank’s annual general meetings and are demanding a greater share of its profits as a dividend.