President Cyril Ramaphosa may receive stern advice on policy implementation and reforms from Trudi Makhaya, the Presidency’s youngest economic adviser.
The 40-year-old economist was appointed as Ramaphosa’s economic adviser on Monday and is at the helm of his A-list team tasked with bringing in $100bn in investment over the next five years. An investment summit is set to take place in August or September.
Economist Thabi Leoka, who studied with Makhaya, says the new adviser has been critical of the government. "You need someone like that, someone who will tell the president what he might not want to know."
While Ramaphosa did not outline Makhaya’s full responsibilities in her new role, one of her immediate tasks will be to co-ordinate the work of newly appointed special investment envoys — former finance minister Trevor Manuel, former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas, Afropulse Group executive chairwoman Phumzile Langeni and Liberty Group chairman Jacko Maree.
"I hope she is given an opportunity to be listened to and given the platform to voice her opinions. Her team is esteemed in their own right," says Leoka.
Makhaya’s columns for Business Day give insight into some of the advice she may send the president’s way. She has been vocal on the missed opportunities for SA over the past decade.
Among the top priorities she has already identified for Ramaphosa are restructuring state-owned enterprises, encouraging private sector employment, improving relations between employers and employees, rooting out anticompetitive behaviour by dominant companies, trimming the regulatory burden on business, improving the efficiency of state services and infrastructure, and resolving policy and legislative impasses in sectors such as mining and telecommunications.
"The new leadership has to work to restore faith that institutions work, leaders and officials are held accountable for their actions and the policies that the government has adopted are implemented," she wrote in her column recently, calling for the resurrection of the National Development Plan.
These ideas match calls from credit rating agencies and institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF.
"As Moody’s rightly argues, this is a time for institutional recovery," Makhaya wrote.
Her new role will need to strike a balance between economic advice and ANC policies. Leoka says some of Makhaya’s stances include a focus on microeconomics instead of the macro to stimulate economic growth through small and medium-sized enterprises and revitalising the manufacturing sector. Makhaya has also been vocal about how politics can be corrosive to the economy.
"An investment drive is a great initiative, but you need to make sure SA is open and conducive to attracting investment," says Leoka. "I can’t think of anyone else more fitting for the position."
Makhaya’s advantage is that she has worked in the policy space, he adds. While many economists opt for the private sector, she made a name for herself in the public sector.
"She’s the best person for the job, given her education and policy knowledge.
Makhaya holds a BCom (law and economics) and a master’s degree in economics from the University of the Witwatersrand. She is a Rhodes scholar and has an MBA and an MSc in development economics from Oxford University
"A market economist may actually be lost on the market," says Leoka.
Former senior Treasury official Andrew Donaldson says Makhaya brings a broad developmental perspective to inclusive growth and the policy issues facing SA.
"We need to do things differently. With the economy growing at 1% a year you have to be a bit critical. She’s well placed to facilitate engagements with business and the government," he says.
This is not Makhaya’s first stint as an economic adviser. She has served as a member of Gauteng Premier David Makhura’s economic advisory panel, which oversees all economic and infrastructure plans in that province.
She grew up in what she describes as a "poor, beautiful and solemn village" in Hammanskraal and matriculated in 1996 from St Barnabas College in Bosmont.
Makhaya holds a BCom (law and economics) and a master’s degree in economics from the University of the Witwatersrand. She is a Rhodes scholar and has an MBA and an MSc in development economics from Oxford University.
"I worked with her at the Competition Commission. She’s a superstar. She’s really quite something," says former competition commissioner Shan Ramburuth.
Makhaya was head of advocacy at the commission, liaising with key stakeholders and Parliament. Her mandate also included working with international organisations such as the UN Conference on Trade and Development and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
"This puts her in good standing for her new role," Ramburuth says. Her biggest advantage, he adds, is the fine balance she found between economics and management at the Competition Commission.
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