east coast of southern africa, raised the question of who the first real non - african explorers of southern africa could have been? with portuguese, dutch, british, spanish, french and even eastern interests in the sea route around the cape, many coins of foreign origin came into circulation in southern africa. the dutch riksdaalder and the british guinea and pound perhaps played the major role for many years in the early history of south africa. it was during the time of the second british occupation of the cape after 1806 that a british governor found it necessary to fix “ exchange ” rates between the various currencies that circulated in the cape at that time. it is interesting what currencies were included in this list : spanish daalders, venetian sequins, a ducat, a gold ropy ( rupee ), an english shilling, and the dutch riksdaalder and half - guilder. [UNK] during a long period of british rule, british money circulated freely in south africa, which included the farthing, ha ’ penny, thruppence ( tickey ), sixpence, shilling, florin, half - crown, and crown ( 5 shillings ). the situation changed again with the establishment of the independent republics of the orange free state and the transvaal ( zar ). the free state reverted to the riksdaalder ( = 1 shilling and sixpence ). in the zar, riksdaalder notes were also issued to serve as currency, although the riksdaalder was supplemented by periodic issues of zar pound notes in various denominations. in 1874, the zar issued its first coins, the burgers pounds. as not many of these coins were issued, they became very valuable collectors ’ pieces. it was only in 1890, however, that final legislation was passed for the establishment of a state mint, and for the minting of zar coins in pennies, shillings, and pound denominations. these coins, commonly referred to as kruger coins, were first minted in 1892 in a building situated on church square in pretoria. after the anglo boer war, british money was again used predominantly in the new british south africa ( to become the union of south africa in 1910 ). the history of south african coinage took a last major step when a branch of the british royal mint was established in pretoria and started to issue south african minted ( sterling ) coins in 1923. this association with the royal

lesetja kganyago : south africa – “ fit for the future ” address by mr lesetja kganyago, governor of the south african reserve bank, at the agricultural business chamber congress 2016, cape town, 1 june 2016. * * * introduction good morning, ladies and gentlemen. i am honoured to be here with you today, on this 70th anniversary of the agriculture business chamber. congratulations on this milestone, agbiz! the theme of this congress is “ fit for the future ”, and to my mind, this is an excellent encapsulation of south africa ’ s monetary policy framework. inflation targeting, the cornerstone of this framework, is fundamentally medium - to long - term orientated. as you all know, economic activity in south africa is currently weak. drought has contributed much to this weakness, but it has considerably deeper roots. structural reforms are urgently needed to improve capital and labour use, which will boost productivity in the medium term. we have also seen rising inflationary pressures for some time, which prompted the current monetary tightening cycle. headline inflation is above the upper end of the target range of 3 to 6 per cent, and this breach is expected to persist until late next year, driven especially by food price increases. 1 the south african reserve bank is certain that an environment of consistently low and stable inflation is the best contribution it can make to balanced and sustainable growth in south africa. however, inflation shocks such as the current food price spike can compromise the credibility of the bank and thereby permanently accelerate inflation. i will focus my remarks today on explaining how the bank views these shocks and when it deems a monetary policy response necessary. economic conditions and the drought south africa ’ s short - term prospects do not look encouraging. while growth has declined since 2011, underlying inflation1 has increased. at the same time, the economy continues to suffer spillovers from low global growth as well as idiosyncratic shocks, of which drought is the most recent. rainfall in 2015 was 20 per cent below its long - run average. 2 parliament recently adopted a motion that drought should be declared a national disaster. 3 after a particularly large maize harvest in the 2014 / 15 season, of 14, 3 million tonnes, commercial maize production dropped last season and is estimated even lower for 2016 / 17, at just 7, 2 million tonnes. we are thus likely to need up to 4 million tonnes of imported maize this year. as measured by headline inflation excluding food, non - alcoholic beverages