Kuben Naidoo: Address at the Mohammad Karaan memorial lecture

Address by Mr Kuben Naidoo, Deputy Governor of the South African Reserve Bank, at the Mohammad Karaan Memorial Lecture, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, 14 April 2022.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

South Africa's history, especially the last century and a half, can best be described as a battle between the unifiers and the dividers. This has indeed been an epic struggle between those who seek an inclusive vision and those who seek separate development. Today, we are gathered here to honour a person who was indisputably a unifier, a person who practically demonstrated that we have the ability to break the dualism in our country, our economy and in our agricultural sector.

I wish to thank the University of Stellenbosch for inviting me to talk to you today. Thanks too to Professors Vink and Kirsten and to Wandile Sihlobo for their assistance in putting this speech together.

It is truly a humbling honour to be asked to deliver the inaugural Professor Mohammad Karaan Memorial Lecture here at his home school, Stellenbosch University. There are hundreds of people who knew Professor Karaan better than I did, who worked more closely with him than I did, and who epitomised his vision and values more than I did. I engaged intensively with Professor Karaan for three short years during his monumental contribution to our society and the world as we know it. It was during these three years where we debated, argued, laughed, cried and sweated in the development of the National Development Plan (NDP). In many ways, Professor Karaan's vision is encapsulated in Chapter 6 of the NDP, which sets out a vision for rural development and agriculture that is far-reaching and ambitious, yet pragmatic and practical. Mohammad provided a unifying vision for agriculture; a vision that he was deeply passionate about.