South Africa to get new central banker in Nov.

PRETORIA, South Africa - South Africa will get a new central banker in November, President Jacob Zuma said Sunday, designating a veteran of his party with broad experience in finance and government.

Zuma said at a news conference Sunday that he had wanted to retain Tito Mboweni as governor of the South African Reserve Bank for a third five-year term after his current term ends next month. But Zuma said Mboweni told him he wants to leave in November "to pursue other interests." Gill Marcus will then take over.

Mboweni and Marcus sat together behind Zuma at the news conference, a signal of continuity likely to reassure business.

The markets have been sensitive to any sign South Africa's free-market economic policy would veer left under Zuma, who took over in May. Zuma's power base is in the labor movement and the South African Communist Party, traditional allies of his African National Congress party. But Zuma said Sunday he had not consulted either ally in choosing Marcus, and stressed he had confidence in the direction Mboweni has taken.

"Our policies have helped us as a country and cushioned us as a country" in these times of global economic crisis, Zuma said.

Marcus said Sunday's brief news conference was not the time to discuss her approach to monetary policy, but praised the "excellent work that has been done to date" by Mboweni.

Marcus was Mboweni's deputy at the central bank from 1999 to 2004 and before that was deputy minister of finance. She also has served as an ANC spokeswoman. Sunday's appointment marked a return to government for her after a stint as chairwoman of South Africa's Absa bank.

South Africa's main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, welcomed Marcus's appointment, and said it believed the markets also would have "confidence in her ability."

Mboweni's efforts to check inflation by keeping interest rates high had been criticized by the left.

In a statement Sunday, the South African Communist Party welcomed Marcus's appointment, saying it hoped it would be a chance to reconsider inflation targeting.

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