What are we missing about the sudden heightened interest in the Reserve Bank and its mandate? There is just too much happening, too quickly and all at the same time, around the central bank.
Take the recent move by public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane to instruct that "the chairperson of the portfolio committee on justice and correctional services must initiate a process that will result in the amendment of section 224 of the constitution".
In case you saw the headline but missed the detail, section 224 (1) defines the primary object of the Reserve Bank as the "protection of the value of the currency in the interest of balanced and sustainable economic growth".
This is followed by section 224 (2), which provides that the bank, "in pursuit of its primary object, must perform its functions independently and without fear, favour or prejudice, but there must be regular consultation between the bank and the cabinet member responsible for national financial matters".
Mkhwebane wants to add the words "while ensuring that the socioeconomic wellbeing of the citizens is protected" to section 224 (1). The other change is an addition at the tail end of section 224 (2) so that it reads "there must be regular consultation between the bank and parliament to achieve meaningful socioeconomic transformation".
First, she wants the bank's consultation no longer to be with the "cabinet member responsible for national financial matters", presumably the minister of finance. She wants the consultation to be between the bank and parliament.
Now why would she want that? Perhaps I'm reading too much into this, but you can't blame a guy living in a country which has seen four finance ministers in less than two years. Are we missing something here?
Second, if you read the proposed amendment carefully, you will note that the nature of the consultation has been prescribed. In its current form, the constitution simply provides for consultation between the finance minister and the bank.
The proposed amendment says parliament and the bank must consult to "achieve meaningful socioeconomic transformation". Are we missing something here?
In the middle of all this, Deputy Finance Minister Sfiso Buthelezi addresses the Gordon Institute of Business Science and is reported not to be a fan of inflation targeting. One newspaper even reports him saying that "while inflation targeting might be good for developed economies, it was bad for emerging economies such as South Africa's".
He is further quoted as having said that "the role of the Reserve Bank is a contested space. Let's not be intellectually lazy; let's not accept these things as gospel truth."
Having interviewed the deputy minister myself, I know he is quite an astute economist who, I'm certain, has his own well-considered views about the country's economic policies. But when he says the above, days after the public protector has just given instructions for a constitutional amendment to the mandate of the Reserve Bank, you can't help but wonder: what is really going on?
Then the ANC meets for its policy conference and decides the Reserve Bank should be owned by the state. The markets go crazy, though the ownership of our central bank is actually a historical anomaly that is inconsequential to its mandate.
If ownership of the Reserve Bank means nothing, why change it? What is the point of it all, then? Was it supposed to be a proxy for radical transformation? What are we missing here?
So I called on the most reliable source I could find for answers to my dead-end questions. I asked the governor of the Reserve Bank, Lesetja Kganyago, what the big fuss was all about.
"In modern society there is always contestation about institutions. In the developed world there have been times where the central bank has been asked to do things that are not normal for central banks to do, simply because they have been successful in carrying out their mandate and get asked to do other things.
"The role of central banks in their respective economies is debated regularly. My appeal to the South African public is that as we debate these issues - whether it's about the mandate of the Reserve Bank, or the role the bank plays in the economy, or about the ownership of the bank or the role of the private shareholders in the Reserve Bank - let us move from the basis of facts."
Facts? Is someone lying? Or perhaps being selective about the truth? The questions continue, I guess.
Khumalo is chief operating officer of MSG Afrika and presents Power Business on Power98.7 at 6pm, Monday to Thursday
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