Plan, but no man

South African Reserve Bank (SARB) governor Lesetja Kganyago does little to hide his frustration about the lack of progress in pursuing the structural reforms required to improve South Africa’s growth prospects and deal with its serious unemployment problem. He argues that the National Development Plan (NDP) outlines many of the reforms needed, but questions whether the political class is truly ready to make the “bold decisions” required to implement the plan. “The truth of the matter is that the NDP spells out a structural-reform programme. But because those things are painful to do, we would rather talk of the NDP as a living document that must continuously be adjusted.”