The role and influence of the IMF on economic policy in South Africa’s transition to democracy: the 1993 Compensatory and Contingency Financing Facility revisited

Abstract

SUMMARYMany commentators have pointed to the 1993 International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan, which occurred on the eve of South Africa’s democratic elections, as a key factor in explaining the shift in African National Congress (ANC) economic policy in the 1990s. This argument is now invariably taken for granted. Little understanding of the nature of the Compensatory and Contingency Financing Facility (CCFF) is displayed, nor has any hard evidence been produced to back this argument. Drawing upon previously unseen data and reports from both the National Treasury and the IMF, we show that the IMF loan could not have had such an impact on ANC economic policy thinking.