South Africa gains the extra seat on World Bank board
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Renosi Mokate, former deputy governor of the South African Reserve Bank, has been elected to the World Bank’s board of executive directors. Her appointment takes the total of Sub-Saharan African seats on the board up to three, finally meeting a 2008 commitment. The Bank claims that this creates a developing country majority on the board and is an important milestone in efforts to boost their representation. However, this assertion is based on the incorrect classification of the high-income countries of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia as developing. High-income countries in fact retain 14 seats, and 60 per cent of the vote (see Update 70).
