Ramaphosa warns over Reserve Bank
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed concern over the Public Protector's instruction to Parliament that it should amend the Constitution to change the Reserve Bank's mandate.
Busisiwe Mkhwebane believes the central bank should play a greater role in improving South Africans' socio-economic conditions, instead of solely focusing on the local currency.
She made the findings in her report into an apartheid-era bailout to Absa's predecessor Bankorp, which also ordered the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to recover the R1 billion from Absa.
Ramaphosa was delivering the keynote address at the South African Communist Party's fundraising gala dinner on the East Rand on Friday night.
"Our Constitution should not be tampered with willy-nilly," warned Ramaphosa.
He added that South Africa's democratic institutions should not be undermined.
Parliament this week indicated it would take the Public Protector's instruction on judicial review, as the findings are binding.
"The Speaker of the National Assembly believes that the remedial action of the Public Protector against Parliament undermines the provision of Section 57 of the Constitution which empowers the National Assembly to determine its own procedures," Parliament's spokesperson Molotho Mothapo told Jacaranda FM News.
Absa has meanwhile also indicated it will take Mkhwebane's report on review.