FACTBOX-S.Africa's monetary policy committee

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Gill Marcus takes over from Tito Mboweni as Governor of South Africa's central bank from Nov. 9 and will head up the monetary policy committee (MPC) that decides on interest rates. Formed in October 1999 after Mboweni took over as governor, the MPC is tasked with targeting inflation and its formation is credited with helping to make interest rate decisions more transparent. It currently has 7 members who are all employees of the Reserve Bank, including the Governor and three deputy governors, although with Daniel Mminele promoted to deputy governor this year there is space for an additional person. There is nothing in the bank's laws setting out how many members serve on the committee and its size has fluctuated. It started out with 15 members, dropping to eight in 2002 and to seven when one of the deputy governor posts lay vacant. Marcus, Mminele, Bertus van Zyl, Xolile Guma, Monde Mnyande and Brian Kahn all served on the first committee set up and led by Mboweni, and will take part in the next gathering later this month. The committee holds regular two-day meetings -- every two months since 2003 but once a month in 2009 due to a volatile economic climate. Reserve Bank economists give presentations on the economy and then members are left to talk and reach a consensus on the next move. The MPC has brought transparency to interest rate decisions, replacing the previous format in which then Governor Chris Stals -- who served until 1999 -- announced decisions sometimes after markets closed on a Friday, surprising investors. The committee targets annual consumer price inflation at between 3 and 6 percent although the rate peaked at close to 14 percent last year, driven by higher international food and oil prices. The governor reads out a statement after the meeting but the committee does not release minutes of discussions. Below are short profiles on each of the MPC members, including Marcus. GILL MARCUS Marcus, 60, joins the bank as Governor next week and will hold her first committee meeting as chairwoman on Nov. 16-17. She served on the MPC as a deputy governor during her five years at the bank between 1999 and 2004 and was involved in setting up the inflation targeting framework. Marcus may be viewed as a dove on the committee, but markets will have to wait for her first speech or statement to hear how she views current economic conditions. Analysts say she is a good speaker and many are expecting clear signals on monetary policy. Marcus served as head of parliament's finance committee and then deputy finance minister before joining the central bank in 1999, and, with her credentials as a liberation fighter with the African National Congress, is seen as close to the leaders in the ruling party and to President Jacob Zuma. She set up the ANC's information department on her return from exile ahead of the country's first multi-racial election that elected her to parliament in 1994. Marcus holds a commerce degree from the University of South Africa and was chairwoman of ABSA Group, which owns South Africa's biggest retail bank, before being called on by Zuma to return to the central bank. Held in high regard by investors, she also served as a non-executive director of Gold Fields and executive chair of mining group Western Areas. Marcus resigned as deputy governor in 2004, some say because she clashed with Mboweni. XOLILE GUMA Guma, 52, has been a deputy governor of the bank since August 2001 and was a member of the inaugural, larger, policy committee. Before that, he was an advisor to the Governor. Guma holds a PhD in economics from the University of Manchester after also studying in Canada, Botswana and Swaziland, and first joined South Africa's central bank as an economist in 1995. Although the head of the committee is the only member that speaks publicly on rates decisions, some analysts said Guma may be slightly hawkish. DANIEL MMINELE Aaron Daniel Mminele, 44, was appointed a deputy governor in June this year after serving for four years as Executive General Manager responsible for financial markets, a position that also put him in charge of exchange controls and gave him a seat on the MPC. He first joined the central bank in 1999 after holding positions in several commercial banks, including African Merchant Bank, the Johannesburg branch of Germany's Commerzbank AG and the London and Dusseldorf branches of Westdeutsche Landesbank. After studying banking in Germany and Britain, Mminele, who speaks fluent German, returned to South Africa in 1995. Well respected by investors, he was tipped by some to take over from Mboweni as Governor and is seen as more dovish than some others in the committee. RENOSI MOKATE Mokate, 51, was appointed a deputy governor in 2005 for a five-year term after being the head of the country's Financial and Fiscal Commission, a state advisory body on financial matters, and stints at South Africa's Central Energy Fund, the Human Sciences Research Council and the Development Bank of Southern Africa. She studied in the United States, obtaining a PhD from the University of Delaware, was schooled in Swaziland and is considered a specialist in development economics. Mokate is responsible for corporate services, human resources and legal services, amongst other things, at the central bank and has not made many public policy speeches. MONDE MNYANDE Mnyande, who will turn 52 next week, is the central bank's Chief Economist responsible for the research department and is seen as a moderate on the policy committee. He obtained a PhD in economics from the New School University in New York in 1995, the same year that he joined the bank. He worked as an economist at the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey between 1989 and 1991. BERTUS VAN ZYL Van Zyl, 56, has been at the central bank longer than any of his MPC colleagues, having joined the central bank in 1985, before the end of apartheid. He was promoted to Executive General Manager in 2005 and acted as Advisor to the Governor from September 2001. Before joining the central bank, Van Zyl lectured in economics at the University of Pretoria and was chief foreign exchange dealer at Volkskas Bank after obtaining an M.Sc in international banking and finance from Herriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and a M.Com in economics from Pretoria's university. Some economists see him as one of the more hawkish members of the committee. BRIAN KAHN Brian Kahn, 56, is senior deputy head of the central bank's research department. He has been a member of the policy committee since its inception in 1999 and is seen by some observers as being on the hawkish side. Before joining the bank in September 1999, he was Professor of Economics and Director of the School of Economics at the University of Cape Town and a research associate at the London School of Economics' Centre for Research into Economics and Finance in Southern Africa (CREFSA). ((For a profile of Gill Marcus, double-click on )) (Reporting by Gordon Bell; Editing by Ruth Pitchford) (For more Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://af.reuters.com) Keywords: SAFRICA CBANK/MPC ([e-mail]; [phone]; Reuters Messaging: [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.

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