The 19-member squad shows the direction of travel for President Ramaphosa's growth and employment agenda.
Listen to this article 3 min Listen to this article 3 min President Cyril Ramaphosa will bolster the potential of his G20 presidency with a 19-member team of top economic advisers.
Appointed to his Presidential Economic Advisory Council, the 19 members, drawn from business and the global academies, show a bias towards employment-linked growth strategies.
This is a good thing in a country with the highest unemployment rate in the G20. Ramaphosa chairs the council, with Dr Renosi Mokate as his deputy. Mokate has previously held the roles of chairperson of the Government Employees' Pension Fund and deputy Reserve Bank governor, among many other leading roles.
Ramaphosa has looked around the world for leading thinkers. Prof Esther Duflo won the 2019 Nobel Prize (with Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer), and Prof Mariana Mazzucato is an exciting thinker on innovation in the state as a driver of growth. She also chairs the WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All - her advice on what SA does with the contested National Health Insurance initiative will be seriously taken on board.
Dr Vera Songwe is a former UN Under Secretary-General and executive secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa. Prof...
