Communist Party contradicts ally ANC over central bank role on job creation

The South African Communist Party (SACP), a key ally of the governing African National Congress (ANC) party, said on Wednesday that the mandate of the central bank should be expanded to explicitly include job creation.

"The mandate of the South African Reserve Bank must explicitly include employment growth targeting – with a consequential amendment to the Reserve Bank Act," the SACP said in a statement.

Senior ANC officials contradicted each other on Tuesday over whether the party had decided to expand the bank's mandate, hours after data showed the country's worst economic contraction in a decade.