Kganyago Cites Zulu War to Signal Preemptive Inflation Move

Lesetja Kganyago at the IMF and World Bank Spring meetings in Washington, DC, on April 15.Photographer: Matt McClain/Bloomberg

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By Matthew Hill and Ntando Thukwana

April 15, 2026 at 10:56 PM UTC

Updated on

April 16, 2026 at 6:42 AM UTC

South Africa’s central bank governor referenced an 1879 battle in the Anglo-Zulu war in his views on how to tackle the coming wave on inflation from the Iran war shocks, implying a preference to raise interest rates sooner rather than later.

“The policy response should be to make sure that the shock becomes transitory rather than becomes persistent,” Lesetja Kganyago said on an International Institute of Finance panel in Washington on Wednesday.