“Our position on the nationalisation of the reserve bank has not changed. If you talk about sovereignty of that bank, belonging to the people, is one and the same thing,” ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule told reporters.

The party’s deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte said the mandate of the South African Reserve Bank would not change if the bank was nationalised.

Some officials in the ANC have called in recent months for the bank’s mandate to be extended beyond inflation-targeting to include boosting economic growth and unemployment. (Reporting by Alistair Smout; Writing by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo; Editing by Andrew Heavens)