Add to this a drop of 1,4% in the gross domestic product and the dire state of our state-owned enterprises, and it is clear that the South African economy is in a state of panic.
With this said, two experts from the North-West University (NWU) –Prof Rhulani Hanyane and Francois Fouche – will be discussing the state of the economy during the upcoming NWU Alumni and Friends Business Breakfast in Vanderbijlpark.
The event will take place on 20 March, and will see members of the university’s alumni fraternity, academia, business owners and community members coming together to debate issues such as the state of the nation address and the budget speech to unpack its impact on the man on the street.
More about the experts
Prof Rhulani Hanyane
Prof Hanyane is an associate professor at the NWU and is an expert in public management and governance. His areas of expertise include local government, local economic development, community participation, urban studies, the national and international science of public administration and political science, as well as philosophy.
Before joining the academia, he worked as a data analyst at Metrofile Pty Ltd and as a market researcher with Lodge Service. As an academic expert he has lectured and conducted research at the former Vista University’s Soweto Campus, as well as the former Technikon South Africa and Unisa.
He has presented extensive training and continues to do so in the South African public service and local government sphere, including those of other African states such as Nigeria, Rwanda, Southern Sudan, Kenya, Lesotho and Uganda. As a commentator he is also widely known as a content contributor on public governance issues on national television and radio.
Francois Fouche
Francois Fouche is an advisor at the TRADE Research Advisory (Pty) Ltd, a commercial advisory arm within the NWU’s TRADE research focus area.
He started his professional career as an economist at Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates Inc., a USA-based commercial think tank. Here he focused on macro-economic modelling and econometric analysis of selected Sub-Sahara African countries.
As a treasury economist at Barclays Capital, he focused on fixed income and economic research to institutional investors and provided strategic economic and interest rate research input.
While at Corp Capital Bank, he was part of the team which originated South Africa’s first passive investment tracking fund. Other areas of focus included various applications of derivative structures to tailor niche payoff profiles for institutional investors.
At Global Insight Inc. his responsibilities included the diversification of economics research offerings to corporate and government entities. During this time, he was part of the research team that founded the Regional Economic Explorer, an integrated sub-national database of economic and social economic statistics.
Since the 2008 electricity load shedding crisis, he focused on energy economics and tariff-related industry research as well as financial modelling of electricity load limiting projects and underground coal gasification projects.
More recently, he acted as a financial economics advisor to the Reserve Bank of South Africa. Here his focus was directed within the Financial Markets Department and at the modernisation of South Africa’s FX reserves management as well as the implementation of international asset management best practice. Subsequently, he advised the Department of Energy’s Independent Power Producers (IPP) on the financial funding challenges facing a sustainable IPP Program, with particular focus on renewable energy financing.
Book your seat today
If you are interested in attending this event, please contact Zanele Ngobese via email at zanele.ngobese@nwu.ac.za or phoning 016 910 3250 or 083 756 7617.
The event will take place from 08:00 to 11:00. Tickets amount to R700 per table of 10 guests, R140 per couple or R70 per person.
