South Africa's ANC still wants central bank to be nationalised - party official

South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) still wants the central bank to be nationalized, but this will not affect the institution's mandate, party officials said on Tuesday. "Our position on the nationalization of the reserve bank has not changed. If you talk about the sovereignty of that bank, belonging to the people, is one and the same thing," ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule told reporters.

The party's deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte said the mandate of the South African Reserve Bank would not change if the bank was nationalized. Some officials in the ANC have called in recent months for the bank's mandate to be extended beyond inflation-targeting to include boosting economic growth and unemployment.