About the Department

 

History

Economics as a science, originally referred to as Political Economics, was founded during the second half of the eighteenth century. However, it was established as an academic subject at most Western universities only in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

Considering that Economics has only existed as a general academic discipline at Western universities for some 140 years, the Department of Economics at the University of Stellenbosch has a fairly long history. In fact, our Department is one of the oldest of its kind amongst all the universities in Africa.

Ever since it was established, the various professors who have been involved in it over the years have made great contributions to build the Department of Economics into the successful institution that it is today.

The first professorship in Economics was awarded to Johannes Grosskopf (1885-1948) between 1920 and 1935. However, it unleashed many disputes. According to Act 11 of 1915, no person who partook in the Rebellion of 1914 was allowed to have any access to a "teaching position". Because Grosskopf did in fact take part in the Rebellion, the Minister of Education - who was part of the SAP Cabinet of the time - did not allow Grosskopf to accept the offer. Eventually the parliament proclaimed an Act of Indemnity that made it possible for Grosskopf to accept the post. The result of the delay was that the Department had to wait two years to make its appointment, since the vacant post had already been available in 1918.

Prof Grosskopf is especially well-known for the important role that he played, together with Prof Bobby Wilcocks and Mrs ME Rothman (MER), in the compilation of the Carnegie Report. The report, also known as the Carnegie Poor White Study, deals with issues relating to the poor whites living in South Africa at that time, and was published in 1932. Prof Grosskopf's contribution was to determine the socioeconomic reasons for the whites' poverty. The report found that a third of the one million Afrikaners in 1931 enjoyed a satisfactory economic status, another third was poor, and the the remainderwas "very" and "distressfully" poor. The report had an objective and unemotional tone. Interestingly, the white population was not divided into groups of Afrikaans or English speaking people, but rather according to an "older white population", which referred to those people that descended from Dutch, French and German origin, and a "younger white population" - people who mainly originated from England.

In 1935 Prof Grosskopf was employed by the Department of Trade and Industry, where he became head of the Division for Economics and Markets. He specialised in Agricultural Economics. After his retirement in 1945, he became deputy chairman of the National Marketing Council. He passed away in 1948.

Prof Grosskopf will not only be remembered for his work as an economist, but also for his talent as a playwright and great knowledge of as well as interest in the Fine Arts. His Drie Eenbedrywe is an Afrikaans volume of drama which was awarded the Hertzog literary prize in 1926. Grosskopf also befriended another well-known Afrikaans author, Hendrik Pierneef, and published a successful book about him.

The successor to Prof Grosskopf was Prof Koos Botha. Many students referred to him as Prof Boos Kotha, reflecting their impression of him as a strict man. His term with the Department was short, lasting only from 1 January 1936 until the 31st of August 1937. Afterwards he became a member of the Loan Council and, later on, the president thereof. He was appointed a member of the Railroad Council in the early fifties.

Both professors Grosskopf and Botha founded a tradition of economic policy in the Department of Economics which they passed down to the professors and lecturers that followed them. The way in which they became involved in the public arena of the socio-political problems of the time, is still practiced by the current staff: thoughts and methods are not narrow-minded and theoretical, but policy orientated as well as politically informed and involved.

Between 1937 and 1947 a whole decade passed without a professor to fill the vacant post. Prof Faantjie Pretorius, who became professor in Statistics in 1946 and Registrar in 1956, was the senior lecturer in Economics between 1937 and 1940. In 1940 Daantjie Franzsen became lecturer and a few years later Jan Sadie joined him. During these ten years, and thereafter, Prof C.G.W. Schumann (a professor in Business Economics) gave classes in different fields of Economics. Strictly spoken, Prof Schumann was an economist because he lectured International Trade at third year and postgraduate level until he retired in 1960.

Eventually the vacant post was filled by the 28-year-old DG Fanzsen (born in 1918), who thus came to be Stellenbosch University's third professor in Economics. He later became one of only five professors to earn the distinction of having served two terms at the University. His first term stretched from 1947 until the end of 1949 and the second was the eight year period between 1976 and 1983. Between serving these terms, he was a professor of Economics at the University of Pretoria (from 1950 to 1961); thereafter he became deputy governor and later on senior deputy governor of the South African Reserve Bank until his return to Stellenbosch in 1976.

During the forties, when Prof Franzsen was still a young lecturer, the influential work of Keynes, General Theory, was published. The result was that the quantification of key magnitudes including population income, savings, investments, consumption and the payment balance was insisted upon by all Western countries. In South Africa the task was executed by Prof Franzsen with the assistance of the Reserve Bank's Department of Economics and the Statistics South Africa. This work was pioneering. At the same time Prof Franzsen acted as South Africa's representative for the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth.

The work that Prof Franzsen did throughout his career is an outstanding combination of academic work, economic research and participation in economic policy formulation. In each of these three fields, the quality of his work remained exceptional over a fifty year period. He served as chairperson for a wide variety of committees and commissions. Of these, the most important ones were the Franzsen Commission that analysed fiscal and monetary policy (1967-1970), the Committee for Railroad Capital Financing (1976-1884), the Committee for Marginal Goldmines (1978) and the Committee for the Restructuring of Government Debt Commission (1985). In addition, he acted as a member of many other commissions and committees. Some of the most important ones were the Mouton Commission that engaged with competition issues (1976), the Fouche Commission for housing (1977), the Margo Tax Commission (1989) and the Government Debt Commission (1963-1990).

In 1944 Prof Franzsen collaborated with Prof CGW Schumann to publish the first Afrikaans textbook for Economics, called Ekonomie - ‘n inleidende studie. The book was revised and reprinted several times and served for many years as the standard Economics textbook in all Afrikaans universities. During his second term at Stellenbosch, Franzsen focused on tax reformation, fiscal federalism and budget policy. He published many monographs and articles on demography and quantitative economics, especially on national accounts, the business cycle and government finances. The University of South Africa awarded him an honory doctorate in 1989. Prof Franzsen passed away in 2008.

When Prof Franzsen moved to Pretoria in 1951, 32-year-old Jan Sadie (born in 1918) took over his role as Economics professor at Stellenbosch University. Sadie enjoys the special distinction of having served a 33 year long term as professor at the University - from the 1st of January 1951 until 31 December 1983. Furthermore, he was awarded a second doctorate in Economics in March 2000. During his career, both the University of Stellenbosch and Port Elizabeth awarded him honorary doctorates. Prof Sadie passed away in 2005, but his memory lives on; the postgraduate lecture hall on the second floor of the Schumann-building is named after him.

Considering that Prof Sadie's career in the Department had already started in the forties, when the staff complement was still small, he lectured in almost all fields of Economics initially. As time passed, he focused his research and lectures on the Economics of Underdeveloped Regions and Labour Economics. Both of these studies required proper life statistics and consequently the professor grew interested in Demography, particularly Economic Demography. Prof Sadie is not only well-known in the national arena, but also internationally for his revolutionary work in the field of Economic Demography. During the seventeen years after his retirement, the field where Economics and Demography meets also became a hobby for him, in addition to remaining the focus of his research- . Furthermore, he also started evaluating the results of census data collection. The task was highly criticised, but seemed to be one of great importance.

Prof Sadie served on a large number of commissions and councils and acted as advisor to several South African and foreign institutions and governments. His most important involvements were as advisor to the Tomlinson (1954-1955) and Franzsen (1968-1969) Commissions. The former evaluated the socio-economic development of the Bantu-homelands while the latter evaluated fiscal and monetary policy in South Africa. After the Tomlinson Report was published, Prof Sadie was recognised, together with professors N Olivier and SP Cilliers, as one of the "visionary" members of the South African Bureau for Racial Affairs (SABRA). The political views of these members caused friction between themselves and Dr Verwoerd, since they wanted him to drastically revise the government's policy with respect to Black Urbanisation and were upset with his interpretation of the Tomlinson Report. For a long time thereafter these "visionary" people were seen as persona non grata in government circles.

In addition to being a professor in Economics, Prof Sadie was also the director of the Bureau for Economic Research at the University between 1973 and 1983. During this period he published monographs and some 150 articles in academic journals.

Because of the increase in student numbers that took place at the University, a second professorship was granted to the Department of Economics in 1968, and Sampie Terreblanche was promoted to fill the new post. At the time the staff complement consisted of only four people, who had to duplicate all the undergraduate lectures presented at Stellenbosch at the Bellville Business School. The result of this arrangement was that Prof Terreblanche was required to give lectures in almost all fields of Economics between 1965 and 1975. As time passed, he was allowed to focus on his personal fields of interest, which were General History of Economics, History of Economic Thought and Modern Economic Systems.

Prof Terreblanche never really saw himself as a research professor, but rather as a lecturing one. Because of the relatively large volume of lectures that he presented to large classes, he received the dubious distinction of probably having more total "student points" (calculated as the amount of lectures given multiplied by the number of students present in every lecture) over the course of his term as lecturer and professor than any other lecturer in the history of the University. Roughly estimating, his student points should have reached one million if all students attended all of their lectures. Unfortunately a "leakage" of 150 000 to 200 000 points took place, and Prof Terreblanche stated that it was not in his power to solve the problem.

Many of the lectures given by Prof Terreblanche were controversial and therefore the Afrikaans students decided that the acronym SAMPIE could be applied to "Suid-Afrika se Mal Professor In Ekonomie" (South Africa's crazy Economics professor). Fortunately rumour also has it that a small group of students instead called him "Suid-Afrika se Meester Professor In Ekonomie" (South Africa's master Economics professor) .

Like all his professorial predecessors in Economics at Stellenbosch, Prof Terreblanche also got involved with processes of policy formulation. Between 1973 and 1976 he was a member of the Erika Theron Commission that investigated issues related to the coloured population of South Africa. From 1979 until 1985 he was a member the Prime Minister's Council for Economic Advice. Terreblanche's involvement in the Theron Commission triggered his interest in the nature and causes of poverty.

The collection of books that Prof Terreblanche has published comprise mainly textbooks for the History of Economics and History of Economic Thought. Also, besides about twenty articles in academic journals and several chapters in books, his strong involvement in party politics is reflected in the hundreds of articles that he has written for local and foreign newspapers on political and economic issues in South Africa. For such political involvement he has received a great deal of criticism. Since retiring at the end of 1995, he has concentrated on studying the political and economical history of South Africa while still working as a part-time lecturer in the Department until 2011. He received honorary doctorates from the Universities of Free State, Pretoria and Stellenbosch.

In 1976 the Department was granted a third professorship, and Prof Franzsen was granted his second term. After Prof Franzsen's retirement in April 1983, Colin McCarthy filled the vacancy to become the sixth professor of the Department.

Until he retired in 2004, Prof McCarthy acted as the (rotating) head of the Department on several occasions. At the time he collaborated with professors Ben Smit and Servaas van der Berg to re-organise the Department into a more effective and dynamic working-environment. In addition, he was responsible for the expansion of the Department's activities. A special Master's degree programme, lectured in English, was introduced during the nineties to accommodate black students from South Africa and other African countries. Prof McCarthy also led the planning of a modular MPhil degree in Economic Policy, for which the first students enrolled in January 2000. This degree was gradually phased out from 2010 onwards.

During his undergraduate and postgraduate lectures, Prof McCarthy concentrated on Macroeconomics, Monetary Economics, the Theory and Policy of International Trade and Development Economics. His research focused on the international policy of trade and industry with a focus on southern Africa. Within the broad field he gave special attention to regional integration issues, given the significant potential of regional integration to stimulate diversified development (especially industrial development) in southern Africa. He researched the role that South Africa, as the country with the largest economy in the region, needs to play through regional co-operation. Prof McCarthy interacted with a wide network of researchers in southern Africa and in Europe working on related issues to provide input for his own research.

Prof McCarthy was a member of a wide variety of organizations, national and international. The most important roles were his involvement in a Nairobian committee that compared the processes of development in Asia and Africa, and his membership of the World Trade Organisation's Dispute Settlement Body. Furthermore he acted as a consultant for several institutions, including the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the Urban Foundation, Wesgro and the World Bank (where he gave special attention to macro-economic aspects of poverty in Lesotho). He also served as a member, and chairman, of the Commission for Tariffs and Trade. By accepting these offers, he followed in the footsteps of Prof Grosskopf, who was permanently employed by the Department of Trade and Industry in 1935.

The research of Prof McCarthy has appeared not only in local and foreign academic journals, but also in the form of chapters in many books. Furthermore, he has been a speaker at a number of local and international conferences. Since his retirement, Prof McCarthy was involved at the Department on a part-time basis until 2012.

After Prof Sadie retired at the end of 1983, Prof Anthony Melck was appointed in 1984. He stayed at the Department for four years. In 1988, he became the Registrar and then Rector of the University of South Africa. His next step was to work as a special advisor to the rector at the University of Pretoria. He has since retired and is involved in organ building in Austria, where he and his wife also stays.

Prof Melck was studying at the University of Cambridge when he received the offer to become a lecturer. The offer raised before him a difficult decision, since he had to choose between a career in Economics and entering the organ-business. Luckily, even though he had already accepted a job from an organ-builder in Germany, he decided on a future in Economics. Nevertheless, Prof Melck did not lose his affinity for the music of Bach and Handel.

In his doctoral thesis, Prof Melck commented on the financial policy of universities. He argued for lecturers to receive financial aid for articles that appeared in specified journals. Since then, the system has been implemented and works to the advantage of lecturers at all universities.

Prof Melck was not only an excellent researcher, but also an esteemed lecturer. His way of talking and dry humour ensured the attention of his students.

After Prof Melck left the Department, Prof Philip Black took his place in July 1988. Before coming to Stellenbosch, he was a professor in Economics and History of Economics at the University of Rhodes. Prof Black left after three years, becoming professor in Economics and director of the School of Economics at the University of Cape Town. However, he started lecturing at Stellenbosch again, and has been appointed as professor extraordinary since January 2002. His main fields of study are Welfare Economics, Applied Microeconomics and Public Economics.

Like all other professors in Economics at Stellenbosch University, Prof Black has also made a great contribution to policy formulation. He was a member of the President's Advising Council for Economics, and his position as research director of the South African Foundation was also strongly policy orientated.

Prof Black has a long list of publications in local and international journals. He has also co-authored several books, including Public Economics for South African Students (Oxford University Press, 2005). In addition, he was the editor of the South African Journal of Economics for many years. Prof Black passed away in 2015.

After Prof Black left Stellenbosch at the end of 1990, Prof Ben Smit filled the vacant post at the beginning of 1991. All his academic qualifications, including a DCom, was obtained at Stellenbosch University. Ben Smit had been a lecturer at the Department since 1975, but was employed as a full-time senior researcher at the Bureau for Economic Research between 1980 and 1984. During the same time he started constructing a macro-econometric model for South Africa that could be used for policy purposes. The model has been perfected through the years and is now widely used as a reliable policy tool.

In the undergraduate and postgraduate classes that he presented, Prof Smit concentrated on International Finance, Macroeconomics and Applied Econometrics. In 1998 he rejoined the Bureau for Economic Research as its Director on a part-time basis, dividing his time between the Department and the Bureau. He retired at the end of 2016.

In addition to the fact that he published many articles and research reports, Ben Smit also acted as a consultant for several institutions. The most notable of these are the National Treasury (since 1993), the Southern African Development Bank (1994-1995), the World Bank (1996-1998) and the Harvard Group (2006-2008). Together with Prof Servaas van der Berg, he served on the technical committee that set out South Africa's reigning macro-economic strategy during 1995 and 1996, namely the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) strategy. In 2010 he was appointed as a non-executive director on the Board of the South African Reserve Bank.

Prof Servaas van der Berg was appointed professor in July 1991. He received his BCom and BComHons at the University of Natal, his MCom at the University of Pretoria and his PhD at Stellenbosch University. In 1982 he started working at the Department.

Prof Van der Berg investigates socio-economic problems and therefore his fields of research and lecturing include Development Economics, policy issues related to income distribution and poverty, security, subsistence and public finance. Analysis of statistical household data provides the basis for much of his research.

By nature of his field of interest, Prof Van der Berg's work is also strongly policy orientated. Furthermore he acts as economic advisor for several institutions and plays a permanent role in a variety of advisory committees. Examples of his involvement are his membership of the advisory committee of the National Treasury. He has also served as advisor to the World Bank, the Southern African Development Bank, the United Nations Development Program, the Western Cape Treasury and several institutions in the private sector. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC).

Prof Van der Berg was awarded the Research Chair in the Economics of Social Policy funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) in 2008, a first for the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. In 2012 it was announced that the Research Chair will receive funding for a further five-year period.

The renewal of the chair is a feather in the cap of a man whose work has a significant impact on South Africans’ understanding of poverty and education in the country. Over the past five years, Prof Van der Berg has led a strong team of researchers and postgraduate students in producing research that is undeniably relevant to the social and economic challenges faced by our country.

The research chair has contributed towards funding and opportunities for 11 Honours students, 15 Masters students, 10 PhD students and one post-doctoral fellow. In particular, the chair has allowed Prof Van der Berg to mentor a large number of students both male and female, and of all race groups, to progress to the level of PhD. In 2010, one of his PhD students, Carlos Maia, won a national research competition in Mozambique (his native country), and a number of his students have won scholarships to pursue part of their studies abroad. Amongst other studies, the research group has looked at the effects of the international economic crisis on child poverty in South Africa; investigated to what extent the funds allocated to Early Childhood Development are actually improving the outcomes for children in schools and crèches; completed a costing exercise to assess the fiscal viability of the mooted National Health Insurance plan; and produced a basic services index to gauge whether municipalities have been able to improve municipal service provision.

Perhaps the most telling achievement is the fact that the research chair has generated more than R10 million in additional funding against a backdrop of research that is often critical of current policies and the status quo in the economy. The work of the chair is valued by stakeholders across the public, private and non-governmental sectors. The list of funders includes local and national government, the private sector, international financial institutions and the United Nations.

It is this combination of relevance and research that the NRF saw fit to reward with a renewal of funding. In its submission of reasons for renewing the chair, the NRF cited that its student support and training have been impressive, with a high Masters and PhD graduation rate; that research achievements have been significant and are being used to inform the development of social policy; and that the chair has fostered strong collaboration with the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), Umalusi (the educational certification body), and the World Bank.

Andrie Schoombee joined the Department in 1983 and became a professor in 1999. He received his undergraduate and honours degrees at the University of Pretoria and his MCom and PhD at Stellenbosch University.

Prof Schoombee's research concerned financial development. He originally concentrated on the role of the monetary control system in the development of formal financial markets, but his emphasis shifted to the availability of formal and informal financial services to the predominantly black population in South Africa. He has been chair of the Department since August 2000 and this has led his focus to shift to managing the Department.

Prof Estian Calitz, Director-General of the former Department of Finances of South Africa (now called the National Treasury) between 1993 and 1996, became the dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences in 2001 and, at the same time, professor in the Economics Department. He was appointed the Executive Director of Finance at the University of Stellenbosch on the 1st of January 2003, but this did not lead him to neglect his post in the Department. He lectured Public Economics on the postgraduatel level and also acted as thesis supervisor for postgraduate students. At the end of his five-year contract in the University's management, he returned full-time to the Department where he taught Macroeconomics and Public Economics to both undergraduate and postgraduate students until his retirement at the end of 2015. He still teaches a Master's Macroecomics module and has also been appointed a Research Associate in the Department.  

Prof Calitz has published widely in peer-reviewed journals and is also well-known for his co-authorship of the very successful Public Economics for South African Students, of which three issues have been printed at Oxford University Press.

Stan du Plessis joined the Department towards the end of 1999 and became a Professor in January 2006. He teaches macroeconomics and monetary economics, mainly to graduate students. His publications in South African and international academic journals include papers on monetary policy, business cycles, applied econometrics, law and economics, and competition policy. He also regularly contributes articles on economic issues for South Africa's financial press. Du Plessis is an editor of the South African Journal of Economics, a member of the Central Council of the Economic Society of South Africa, and past Treasurer and Secretary of the African Econometric Society. He has also served as President of the Economic Society of South Africa.

Stan du Plessis was involved part-time at the Bureau for Economic Research as Head of Research from 2010 to 2013. He was appointed Vice Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences in July 2011, Dean in February 2014 and Chief Operating Officer of Stellenbosch University from 1 January 2018 (he already moved to the office of the COO in January 2017 in a supporting capacity).

Rachel Jafta joined the department as lecturer in 1993 and was promoted to professor in 2011. Prof Jafta's research interests are in industrial economics, economics of innovation, international trade and Black Economic Empowerment. She holds a BEconHons from the University of the Western Cape, and a MEcon and PhD from Stellenbosch University. Her commitment to academic development and social change extends well beyond the university walls. She serves as a trustee for a number of the country's most renowned developmental initiatives, among them the Helen Suzman Foundation, the South African Institute of Race Relations and the Cape Town Carnival Trust, which she co-founded and is serving as the chairperson of the board of trustees.

Prof Jafta is the chairperson of the Rachel's Angels Trust which aims to prepare Grade 11 and 12 learners for the challenges they might face once they have matriculated. Learners from under-privileged communities are selected to be monitored by senior University of Stellenbosch students, who help them to develop stronger business acumen and real-world skills and prepare them for tertiary education.

Prof Jafta has been a director of Naspers since 2003, Media24 since 2007 and chairperson of Media24's board of directors since 2013.

Since 1970 the University introduced a new system of associate professorship. The system gave many lecturers the opportunity to be appointed as associate professor before accepting the post of a full professorship. Nevertheless, two of these associate professors at the Department were never promoted to being professors and deserve special recognition for their work. Contessa Dr Maria le Lange de Reville (1910-1978) was involved with the Department from 1952 until 1977 and appointed associate professor in 1975. Prof De Reville was of Flemish descent and, before the Second World War started, she studied at seven different universities on the European continent. Since she never studied in Britain or America, it could be said that her weltanchauung was fully continentally orientated, differing notably from the Anglo-American academic perspective.

Over the twenty-five years that Prof De Reville was associated with the Department, she developed a reputation for being a real character. Her way of speaking and use of idiomatic language was unique in her mostly Afrikaans-speaking environment, and often caused her students frustration and laughter.

Prof De Reville's main focus was on micro-economics. She taught the art of abstract, systematic and logic thought to the many students whom she lectured on theoretical economics.

Prof Fanie Cloete was another associate professor (appointed 1986), but died in 1988 at the early age of 42. He was a highly valued colleague for several reasons. Not only did he show great loyalty towards his Department and colleagues, but he also had the ability to lecture in any field of Economics on very short notice. His great knowledge and enthusiasm made him a well-loved lecturer with his students. His early death was an enormous loss for the Department. In memory of his life and excellence, the Department awards the best third year and postgraduate student every year with the Fanie Cloete Medal.

During the nineties a number of associate professors were attached to the Department for a short period of time: Yohane Khamfula (2006-2007), Malcolm Keswell (2007-2010) and Evan Gilbert (2008-2010). The latter has been appointed as associate professor extraordinary since taking up a position in the financial sector. Prof Gilbert contributes to the Department's academic activities in his field of specialisation, namely financial economics.

Currently the following staff members are associate professors: Pierre de Villiers (since 2010), Ronelle Burger (since 2012), Guangling Liu (since 2012), Neil Rankin (since 2013), Ada Jansen (since 2014), and since 2015 Wimpie Boshoff, Rulof Burger and Johan Fourie.  

To acknowledge only the contributions that the professors and associate professors have made to the history of the Stellenbosch Department of Economics would not be fair. The importance of the many lecturers and senior lecturers who have also been involved, cannot be overestimated. Professors of other disciplines who made a contribution to our Department that cannot be overlooked, are CGW Schumann and Faantjie Pretorius.

Some previous lecturers left for private or public practice and, through their success, have served as good ambassadors for the Department. In the forties, Dr Dawie Marais became an outstanding businessman after a few years in the Department. In the fifties, Dr Johan Jones and Dr Martin van den Berg left Stellenbosch; Dr Jones became Director-General of Finances in the former South-West Africa, while Dr Van den Berg became Minister of Finances in the government of Dr Lucas Mangope in the former Bophuthatswana.

During the 1960s and early 1970s, Raymond Parsons, Mike Truu, Charles Waite and Wolfgang Thomas were lecturers in the Department. Later on Parsons became the Executive Director of the South African Business Room and a professor at Wits University's Business School. He also served as President of Economics Society of South Africa. Truu accepted professorships at the Universities of Rhodes and Pretoria. Waite was appointed as a professor at the University of Port Elizabeth, and Thomas became the Deputy Director of Wesgro and was later appointed professor extraordinary at the University of Stellenbosch Business School.

During the 1970s Philip Mohr, Jac Laubscher, Frank Biggs, Elwil Beukes and Sterrenberg Pretorius were involved in the Department, although their paths later parted. Mohr went on to become professor in Economics at the University of South Africa, Laubscher became the chief economist of Sanlam and also professor extraordinary at the Department in January 2002. Biggs was a professor at a university college in the USA, while Beukes was a professor at the University of the Free State. Pretorius was employed in a senior post at the South African Reserve Bank.

During the eighties Johan Lötter, Henk Langenhoven, Pieter Laubscher, André Roux and Frans le Roux were lecturers in Economics. These days Lötter is professor in Economics at the University of South Africa, Langenhoven is chief economist at the Chamber of Mines, Laubscher is a consultant to the Bureau for Economic Research, and Roux is associate professor at the University of Stellenbosch Business School. Le Roux became Deputy Director-General in the National Treasury and has served as South Africa's representative at the IMF in Washington.

Department staff who lectured during the nineties included Andrew Smith, John Kruger, Hendrik du Toit, Corné van Walbeek, Nicola Theron and Betsy Stoltz. Smith later accepted a post in the Competitive Council of the Department of Trade and Industry, while Kruger took a senior post in the National Treasury. Du Toit is currently the chief executive officer of Investec Asset Management, Van Walbeek is professor of Economics at the University of Cape Town and Theron is the managing director of Econex (an economics consultancy company specialising in competition cases). Theron has also been appointed professor extraordinary in the Department since 2013 and teaches competition economics on the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Stoltz retired in the mid-nineties.

Prof Basil Moore, from the Wesleyan University in Middletown, USA, was a part-time lecturer at the Department on a fairly regular basis since 1985, and was appointed as professor extraordinary from January 2004 until the end of 2015.

Since 2002, the Department has commenced appointing honorary professors on three-year terms (economists held in high regard and whom the Department wants to honour and associate with). Opportunities are created where the honorary professors can interact with staff and students. The following economists have been appointed, some for more than one term, with an indication of their employment at the time of appointment: Rudolf Gouws (chief economist of Rand Merchant Bank, since retired), Tito Mboweni (governor of the South African Reserve Bank, since retired), Wiseman Nkuhlu (chairperson of the Development Bank of Southern Africa, since retired), Mario Ramos (director-general of National Treasury and thereafter chief executive officer of Absa Bank), Jac Laubscher (chief economist of Sanlam, since retired), Andrew Donaldson (deputy director-general of National Treasury), Cees Bruggemans (chief economist of First National Bank, since retired), Franco Malerba (professor of Applied Economics, University of Bocconi, Milan), Andreas Freytag (professor of Economics, Friedrich-Schiller Universiät, Jenna), Jan Luiten van Zanden (professor and chairperson of Department of Economic and Social History, University of Utrecht), Kuben Naidoo (deputy governor of the South African Reserve Bank), Leoncé Ndikumana (director of Department of Development Research at the African Development Bank and thereafter professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst), Michael Jordaan (retired chief executive officer of First National Bank), Liberty Mncube (chief economist of the South African Competition Commission) and Francois Groepe (deputy governor of the South African Reserve Bank).

The administrative staff have also contributed to the success of the Department of Economics. Here it is important to mention Mr Archie September's exceptional assistance. Mr September was appointed in February 1970 and retired in 2012. He is a source of many interesting stories concerning the Department. Ina Kruger has been the departmental secretary since 2001, Reta Gelderblom the undergraduate administrator since 2002, Carina Smit the postgraduate administrator since 2006 and Ursula Wanza the departmental assistant since 2013.