ContextAddress by Lesetja Kganyago, Governor of the South African Reserve Bank, at the opening of the South African Reserve Bank head office campus and launch of the museum, Pretoria, 19 June 2026.
Why it mattersA rare speech about public trust: why a central bank opens a museum and explains its decisions to citizens.
- The public often misunderstands why low inflation matters.
- Central bank decisions can be unpopular and contested.
- City centres like Pretoria's need renewal and investment.
- Open a museum to explain the central bank's work to citizens.
- Debate decisions within the constitutional mandate to build accountability.
- Stay and invest in the city centre to restore its vibrancy.
Read the speech summary
1. A museum to explain the central bank
At the opening of the renovated Reserve Bank campus and its new museum, in the presence of President Ramaphosa, Governor Lesetja Kganyago said the aim is to open the institution to the public as it nears its 105th anniversary. Central banks can seem distant, and trust grows when people understand how institutions work, so the museum should explain the bank's role and dispel myths: that prisoners counted the money, that notes are printed abroad, that gold bars are hidden in the building. It is also a keeper of memory, with exhibits tracing the region's economic history from barter through colonialism and apartheid to democracy, objects dating back 75 000 years, three centuries of coins and a working 134-year-old minting press. School visits and the monetary policy schools challenge aim to inspire future central bankers, and a game lets visitors set the rate.
2. Art, location and renovation
The museum shows the bank's art collection of more than 1 200 works to the public for the first time, in rotating shows including one on everyday workers and one on women artists. He thanked staff and partner museums. The bank chose to stay in Tshwane, within sight of the Union Buildings and close to the Treasury, as a practical and symbolic commitment to renewing the inner city. It is the first major renovation of the head office in over forty years.
3. Commemorative coins
He announced a series of circulating commemorative R2 coins on education: one for the 1976 youth uprising, one for the 125th anniversary of Charlotte Maxeke's degree, due in August, and one for the thirtieth anniversary of the Constitution, due in December with an R5 coin combining the three themes. Through the museum the bank hopes to strengthen accountability so that even unpopular decisions are debated within its constitutional mandate.