The view is often held that central banks have little or no connection to the
society within which they exist, although their policy decisions impact directly
on people, institutions and society. While this view has gained much attention in
the media and in some academic circles, this article uses evidence from South
Africa to show the fallacy of the view that ‘money is created out of nothing’
and that central banks are owned by and secretly controlled for the benefit of
particular interest groups. Instead, it draws on insights in post-Keynesianism
to demonstrate that the ownership of the South African Reserve Bank rests in
the hands of private shareholders, but in an open and transparent manner, and
that the Reserve Bank succeeds in ensuring that the system is supervised and
sufficiently regulated in the public interest.

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Keywords

central banks, South African Reserve Bank