Obituary: Prof Johannes Anthonie (Jan) Lombard: 1925–2017

• Published date: 01 December 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/saje.12173
• Date: 01 December 2017
• Author: Raymond Parsons,Jannie Rossouw

OBITUARY

PROF JOHANNES ANTHONIE (JAN) LOMBARD: 1925–2017

Prof Johannes Anthonie (Jan) Lombard, a South African academic, moved easily between

the walls of the academe and the halls of policymakers. He served as the Head of the

Department of Economics at the University of Pretoria, Senior Deputy Governor of the

South African Reserve Bank, an official in the Department of Commerce and Industry

and in the Department of Finance (as National Treasury was known at the time).

Although Lombard’s professional career started with a clerkship in the SA Reserve Bank

in 1947 and ended when he retired as Senior Deputy Governor of the central bank in

1991, he had a long and distinguished career outside central banking.

Prof Lombard matriculated in 1942 at the Afrikaans Ho€er Seunskool in Pretoria. He

completed his BA (Law) degree and MA (Economics) degree at the University of Preto-

ria. In 1954, he completed a PhD (Economics) at the London School of Economics,

while serving in the United Kingdom as an official of the South Africa Department of

Commerce and Industry (stationed in the South African High Commission). In 1991,

the University of Pretoria honoured Lombard with a D Com (Honours Causa) for his

contribution to economic policy in South Africa.

Lombard left the central bank in 1950 for a position in the Department of Commerce

and Industry, with placings in London and New York. In 1960 he was appointed as

Deputy Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister and Deputy Chairperson of the Prime

Minister’s Economic Advisory Council. Lombard was appointed as Head of the Depart-

ment of Economics at the University of Pretoria in 1961, where he retired in 1985. Dur-

ing that period, Lombard held numerous seconded positions and worked on various

government commissions and committees.

Lombard served as a member of the Franzsen Commission (Republic of South Africa,

1970) from 1967 to 1970. Lombard also served as a member of the De Kock Commis-

sion (Republic of South Africa, 1985) from 1977 to 1985, setting the framework for

monetary policy conduct in the 1980s. The final commission report considered central

bank autonomy and independence, with Lombard arguing in a minority report for

increased autonomy and independence. Lombard’s foresight on this matter is abundantly

clear; during the 1980s, the central bank experienced increasing political interference in

monetary policy decisions

Lombard held a leadership role in the Buthelezi Commission (Study Commission on

U.S. Policy toward Southern Africa, 1981) appointed in 1980 to investigate options for

the political future of the (then) Natal Province (now KwaZulu-Natal). The Commission

recommended that the Natal Province become an independent multiracial state within a

confederate South Africa. Although this recommendation had some support in Natal, it

was not supported by the Nationalist government of the time. It also met with consider-

able right wing opposition in South Africa, culminating in the bombing and burning of

Lombard’s office at the University of Pretoria one Saturday evening.

During his long career Lombard also had several valuable interactions with organised

business, such as with the then Federated Chamber of Industries (FCI) and the

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South African Journal of Economics Vol. 85:4 December 2017

South African Journal

of Economics