Meet Ramaphosa’s new top economic advisors
President Cyril Ramaphosa has officially appointed the 7th administration’s Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC).
It is a non-statutory and independent body chaired by the President and brings together prominent local and international economists and technical experts drawn from academia, the private sector, labour, community, think tanks and other constituencies.
The PEAC ultimately advises Ramaphosa with the aim of providing sound and levelled advice on economic policy.
There are 19 members of the PEAC, including the deputy chairperson.
Very briefly, these include:
Dr Renosi Mokate (Deputy Chairperson)
Dr Mokate is an experienced economist and policy analyst, who specialises in development economics and finance.
She served (among other roles) as the first deputy chair of the PEAC, CEO of the Central Energy Fund, Deputy Governor of the South African Reserve Bank, Executive Director at the World Bank and presently, she occupies the position of Executive Chair of Concentric Alliance and Chair of the Government Employees Pension Fund.
Dr Antonio Andreoni
Dr Andreoni is a 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, Andreoni focuses on four inter-linked research areas – energy transition, mineral resources, reorganisation of the international supply chain, and construction of new infrastructure.
Prof Haroon Bhorat
Bhorat is Professor of Economics and Director of the Development Policy Research Unit at the University of Cape Town (UCT).
His research interests cover labour economics, poverty and income distribution; sporting more than 150 published academic journal articles, book chapters and working papers.
Dr Kenneth Creamer
Dr Creamer is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Economics and Finance at Wits University; now having a second stint in Ramaphosa’s PEAC.
Creamer has published various academic papers and popular articles on fiscal, monetary, competition, competition, labour market and energy policy, as well as open economy macroeconomics.
Prof. Esther Duflo
Duflo is the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics in the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Her research looks 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).
Prof Vusi Gumede
Prof. Gumede is currently the Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Development and Business Sciences at the University of Mpumalanga.
He sports wide-ranging research interests relating to socio-economic and fiscal policy, among others.
For 11 years, he held various senior government positions before joining academia.
Prof Alan Hirsch
Prof Hirsch is Emeritus Professor at The Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at UCT and founding director of the School, 2011 – 2019.
He has also spent many years in key government advisory roles, and writes largely about economic development issues.
Ms Mamokete Lijane
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.
Ms Trudi Makhaya
Makhaya is the Senior Advisor at the Boston Consulting Group who 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.
Prof Mariana Mazzucato
Mazzucato is a Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London, where she is Founding Director of the Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose.
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.
She is the author of several highly acclaimed books, including the newly published Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism.
Mr Isaah Mhlanga
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.
Mr Kuben Naidoo
Naidoo was until recently a Deputy Governor of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and a member of the Monetary Policy Committee.
He oversaw the Financial Stability and Currency Cluster, which included the SARB’s Economic Statistics, National Payment System, Fintech, Financial Stability, and Risk Management and Compliance departments, as well as the Corporation for Deposit Insurance.
He is now the Head of Corporate Payment Channels at Investec.
Mr Zeph Nhleko
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, where he ultimately became a senior economist informing the views of the Monetary Policy Committee.
Prof Dani Rodrik
Rodrikis 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.
Mr Wandile Sihlobo
Making a reutrn to the PEAC, 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).
He has been a Senior Lecturer Extraordinary at the Department of Agricultural Economics at Stellenbosch University and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Wits School of Governance.
Dr Vera Songwe
Dr Songwe is an economist and banking executive who is currently 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.
Prof Fiona Tregenna
Prof 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.
Prof Imraan Valodia
Prof. Valodia is Dean of the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, and Director of the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand.
His research interests include inequality, gender, competition policy and industrial development, and employment in developing countries.
He is a part-time member of the Competition Tribunal in South Africa and a Commissioner of the National Minimum Wage Commission.
Prof Ingrid Woolard
Prof. Woolard is Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences and Professor of Economics at Stellenbosch University.
Her areas of research interest include the measurement of poverty and inequality, unemployment, social protection and fiscal policy.
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