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ABBREVIATED CURRICULUM VITA
Professor Vishnu Padayachee
Academic:
Professor Vishnu Padayachee is currently Distinguished Professor in the School of Economic
and Business Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He is a (nonresident) Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College, Oxford University and a Fellow at the
Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies (STIAS). He has since October 2012 been
Professor Emeritus in the School of Built Environment and Development Studies at the
University of KwaZulu-Natal. He was inducted as a member of the Royal Society of South
Africa on 24 October 2012 (MRSSAf).
From 1997-2012 he was a Research Professor in the School of Development Studies (SDS) at
the University of Natal, later UKZN (Howard College campus), and its Head from January
2002 to December 2004. In 2002 he was promoted to Senior Professor. The main criteria for
promotion to Senior Professor is that the candidate should have a high standing in his/her
discipline (judged, amongst things by an outstanding and sustained publications record) and
that he/she demonstrates service to the university and wider community, including
exceptional service in areas which bring honour to the University. In 2003 he was made a
Fellow of the University of Natal, a life-time award, for distinguished service to the
University. For most of 2004 he served as the Interim-Director of the Centre for Civil Society
at UKZN. He was appointed Head of the School of Development Studies again in January
2008 for a three year term which ended on 28 February 2011. He was from 1 July 2012 to 31
December 2014 Professor Extraordinaire in the Institute for Social and Economic Research at
Rhodes University, Grahamstown.
He received his PhD from the University of Natal in Economics and Economic History in 1989.
He has authored or edited seven books, edited 4 special issues of accredited journals,
written or co-authored 34 chapters in books and 15 working and occasional papers, and he
has authored or co-authored 75 articles mostly in accredited academic journals. The journals
include World Development, The Journal of International Development, Metroeconomica,
The International Review of Applied Economics, The Cambridge Journal of Economics, Revue
Tiers Monde, The European Journal of Development Research, Journal fur
Entwicklungspolitik, The Journal of Southern African Studies, The Review of African Political
Economy, The South African Journal of Economics, the South African Journal of Economics
and Management Sciences, Central Banking and Comparative Studies in Society and History.
Though trained in mainstream (macro) economics, his research and graduate teaching is
best described as falling within the confluence and traditions of political economy, economic
history and development studies. His current research interests include monetary history,
theory, and policy in South Africa; the political economy of restructuring South Africa, and a
study of South African capitalism in historical perspective.
His books include “Indian workers and trades unions in Natal, 1930-1950” (1985, co-author);
“(D) urban Vortex” (2002, co-editor); “Blacks in Whites: A Century of Cricket Struggles in
KwaZulu-Natal” (2003, co-author); and “The Development Decade? economic and social
change in South Africa, 1994-2004 (2006). His edited book ‘The Political Economy of Africa”
(Routledge) was released in April 2010. His book-length and edited manuscript entitled
“Capitalism of a special type? South African capitalism before and after 1994”, was published
as a special double issue of the accredited journal Transformation 81/2 (2013). He served on
the editorial Advisory Board of the leading journal World Development for over a decade,
until his term ended in early 2013, and he still serves on the editorial boards of The Journal
of Contemporary African Studies, and Transformation.
He has held visiting fellowships in Europe and the USA, including the Paul H Nitze School for
Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University (USA) (1985/6); the
Christian Michelsen Institute in Bergen, Norway (1993); and Robinson College and the Judge
Institute of Management Studies (now Judge Business School) both at Cambridge University
(1995/6). He also held a (non-resident) three-year appointment as Visiting Professor in the
School of Management at Birkbeck College, University of London until February 2004. He
was for many years an African Associate at Cambridge University's African Studies Centre,
and an Associate Member of the Social Policy Department at Oxford University.
Corporate:
Past directorships: President Nelson Mandela appointed him to the Board of Directors of
the South African Reserve Bank w.e.f 1 April 1996. He completed his third and final term as a
non-executive Director of SARB in September 2007, altogether a service of nearly 12 years.
He served on both the Audit and Remuneration Committees of the SARB Board. In July 2006
he was elected chair of the Remuneration Committee; and he represented the Bank at
specialist conferences at national, regional and international levels on many occasions. From
1 Feb-31 August 2009, he served as a consultant to the Board of the Reserve Bank on
matters related to the appointment, termination and post-termination restrictions for SARB
governors and executives.
Professor Padayachee served as a non-executive Director of the Ithala Development Finance
Corporation (2001-2010); where he also served a term as its deputy-Chairperson. From
August 2002 to June 2003 he served on the Board of Directors of Cricket South Africa (Pty)
Ltd. From October 2002 to November 2004, Professor Padayachee was a non-executive
director of the Dube Trade Port (Pty) Ltd, the company that oversaw the development of the
new airport and IDZ near La Mercy in Durban. In July 2004 he was elected for a 2 year term
by the academic staff as one of founding members of the governing Council of the then
newly merged University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Professor Padayachee was non-executive Chairman and director of Invoice Clearing Bureau
(South Africa) Pty Ltd, a global business intelligence and invoice validation company from
2006-2014, until that is the operationalization of the product was taken over by
BankservAfrica under license.
He was from January 2000 until August 2013 a founding partner and member of Praxis
Publishing cc (trading as Ike's Books and Collectables) a specialised bookshop for
antiquarian, Africana, out of print and collectors’ books and memorabilia.
Current directorships: Professor Padayachee joined the main Board of ADA Holdings Pty Ltd
a company focussing on tertiary education in applied engineering and artisanal training in
November 2014. He has been for nearly a decade a member of the Investment Advisory
Board of Cantillon, an investment and retirement fund management company, based in
Umhlanga, Durban, where he has responsibilities for corporate governance compliance and
strategic investment decision-making.
In June 2013 he was appointed by the Minister of Higher Education, Dr Blade Nzimande to
the Interim Council of the Sol Plaatje University (SPU), the first of two new universities
established by the democratic government. He is the Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee
and a member of the Human Resources Committee of the SPU Interim Council.
On 24 August 2012 Professor Padayachee was elected to the Institute of Directors of South
Africa (MInst. D). He is a former member of the Durban Country Club, and is presently a
member of the Kimberley Club and a number of its reciprocal clubs in South Africa and the
UK.