Msindisi Lizani, a University of Fort Hare BCom in Economics graduand, has been named the overall winner in the undergraduate category at the 54th Nedbank and Old Mutual Budget Speech Competition, while Yolanda Gcaleka, a BCom in Economics Honours graduand, placed among the top three winners in the postgraduate category.
The winners were announced in Cape Town during South Africa’s Annual Budget Speech Gala Dinner last night, following the final round of the competition held ahead of the Budget Speech.
Launched in 1972, the Nedbank and Old Mutual Budget Speech Competition is one of the country’s longest-running youth academic platforms. It challenges Economics and Finance students across South Africa’s universities to critically engage with South Africa’s most pressing social and economic issues through rigorous, policy-focused essays.
Undergraduate students were tasked with evaluating trade protectionism, notably higher import tariffs, as a tool to stimulate job creation in developing economies, with a focus on South Africa. Postgraduate students examined inflation targeting in South Africa, assessing the optimal lower bound, the timing of implementation, and international comparisons.
The duo, and another UFH BCom in Economics graduand, Lwando Xhakuvana, were among the top twenty students who were selected for the finals.
Msindisi’s winning essay explored the topic through a sharp developmental lens. His analysis acknowledges that tariffs can redirect demand toward local industries and support emerging sectors. Still, he also highlights their unintended consequences, including higher consumer prices, trade retaliation, and reduced incentives for innovation.
Using examples from Bangladesh and Kenya, Msindisi shows that while tariffs can preserve vulnerable jobs, their long-term success depends on complementary policies such as skills development, infrastructure investment, SME support, and innovation. Without these, protection risks entrenching inefficiencies and worsen inequality.
Msindisi is currently studying for his Honours in Econometrics at the University of Johannesburg. Outside academia, he is involved in community initiatives to raise awareness of drug use among teenagers and promote recycling in his township.
Ten years from now, he sees himself as “An economist and financial analyst, and a member of the Monetary Policy Committee in the SARB.”
Yolanda, who will graduate cum laude, focused her essay on South Africa’s inflation-targeting framework, adopted in 2000. While acknowledging the improved price stability achieved since its introduction, she argued that supply-side pressures, including administered prices, global oil prices, and exchange-rate volatility, primarily drive South African inflation.
Drawing on international examples from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Turkey, Yolanda highlights the need for greater flexibility, stronger fiscal-monetary coordination, and deeper structural reform. She cautions that price stability alone cannot address unemployment and inequality, calling for an approach that better supports inclusive and sustainable growth.
Inspired by former Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel, Yolanda, who is actively involved in tutoring matric learners and first-year students, sees herself contributing to policy development and economic growth in South Africa in the future.
Prof Forget Kapingura, a Professor in Economics at UFH and the the competition convener, extended the Department’s heartfelt congratulations to the students.
“Their dedication, analytical insight, and confident delivery reflect the high academic standards and critical engagement we strive to cultivate as a department. We are immensely proud of their achievement, which is also ours, and of the way they represented the University with distinction.”
Congratulations!