Marcus slams profit-hungry backers

Johannesburg - Reserve Bank governor Gill Marcus on Tuesday accused a "small minority" of shareholders from which the central bank is currently facing a challenge, of not caring about the national interests of the country and being profit-driven.

In a letter to shareholders of the South African reserve Bank, Marcus said she was fully aware that the vast majority of shareholders who participate in the governance of the bank do so "in full recognition and support of its status as a national asset with the task of serving South Africa's people and its economy".

But despite this commitment, and the enormous goodwill towards and trust in the bank she has heard expressed from across all communities in the country, Marcus said the institution currently "faces a challenge, ostensibly lacking in principle and evidently driven by the self-interested profit motive of a very small minority of shareholders".

"This small minority does not appear to care about the national interests of the Republic of South Africa," she asserted.

- I-Net Bridge