SA bank notes get new signature

Maribana - For the residents of Maribana village, South African Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago is the embodiment of how life has changed in SA since the dawn of democracy in 1994.

Appointed last year, Kganyago has come a long way from the school boy who attended classes under a tree in the 1970s because the single block of classrooms could not house all the pupils.

On Friday, Kganyago, SA's second black reserve bank governor, went back to his roots in his home village of Moletjie Ga-Maribana in Limpopo to buy bread, cooking oil, maize meal and sugar with the first batch of banknotes bearing his signature.

He conducted the first transaction with them at Makgohloane General Trading, a local shop in the village where he used to buy bread in the morning for breakfast before going to school as a child.

"We are very proud of him. He has put our village in the limelight," said 38-year-old traffic controller Thomas Malepeng in Maribana, 350km northeast of Johannesburg. "He has come a very long way from his very humble beginnings."

One of his primary school teachers, Jerida Makweya, said South Africa had become a more racially inclusive country since the fall of apartheid, allowing her former charge to assume one of its most influential jobs.

"He was very, very intelligent, this one," the now-retired Makweya said. "I saw his potential from a young age and I'm glad he fulfilled it."

President Jacob Zuma appointed Kganyago as governor last year to succeed Gill Marcus.

On taking the reins, he vowed to protect the value of the rand, support balanced and sustainable economic growth, maintain a stable financial system and keep inflation under control.

"Those of us who do not borrow money, the way in which the Reserve Bank touches us is with the notes and coins that we put in our pocket," he said as he made his purchases.

Prices have largely held stable under Kganyago's tenure, allowing the reserve bank to keep rates on hold since a 25 basis point increase last July.  

On Friday however he quipped that the price of bread, which averages R12 a loaf, has soared from his school days four decades ago when it cost just 10 cents.

All other banknotes currently in circulation remain legal tender and will co-circulate with the banknotes bearing Kganyago’s signature.