Dr Roelof Botha is a self-employed economic researcher and author, an adjunct faculty member at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (University of Pretoria), and economic advisor to BetterBond, the Optimum Investment Group, Currencies Direct and GOPA Worldwide Consultants. His consulting and research work spans macroeconomics and the forecasting of key economic indicators, the residential property market, monetary policy, small business development, public sector economics, skills development and development economics. He writes regular columns for national and regional publications, including Media24, Die Burger, Business Maverick and The Bright Side.
Over more than fifty years, Dr Botha has approached the economy from every angle: from inside the Department of Finance as an economic policy advisor, from a national newsroom as a financial editor, from organised industry as senior economist heading the economics division of the South African Federated Chamber of Industries, from the lecture hall as a senior lecturer at the University of Pretoria and Rand Afrikaans University, and from the boardroom as resident economic advisor to PwC for 28 years. He holds a Doctor of Commerce in Economics, and both his Master’s and Honours degrees in Economics were awarded cum laude.
Dr Botha has published more than 1,000 articles and research reports, delivered keynote addresses at over 1,000 conferences and seminars, and worked with more than 500 companies and organisations. He is a past winner of the Finmedia Economist of the Year award and has served as an adjunct faculty member at the Gordon Institute of Business Science since 2000.
BetterBond has appointed Dr Roelof Botha, one of South Africa’s most experienced and widely followed macroeconomic and socio-political analysts, as economic advisor to BetterBond.
Few economists in the country have read the South African economy from as many vantage points. Dr Botha is known across South African business media for measured, evidence-led assessments of the economy.
Over more than fifty years, Dr Botha has approached the South African economy from inside government, industry and the boardroom. He served as an economic policy advisor in the Department of Finance, headed the economics division of the South African Federated Chamber of Industries and spent 28 years as resident economic advisor to PwC. His research has focused on the residential property market and monetary policy, as well as macroeconomic forecasting and small business development. He holds a doctorate in economics, has published more than 1,000 articles and research reports and has delivered keynote addresses at numerous conferences and seminars.
Dr Botha has co-authored the monthly BetterBond Property Brief for several years, and the new appointment substantially widens that mandate. He will provide regular macroeconomic overviews to BetterBond’s management, staff and clients, focusing on the indicators and trends bearing directly on the residential property market. He will also lead new research supporting property developers and other participants across the residential value chain and will represent that analysis in media commentary and interviews.
“There is no shortage of economic commentary in South Africa. There is a shortage of the kind that holds up six months later,” says Stephan Potgieter, CEO of BetterHome Group Mortgage Origination and BetterBond. “Dr Botha has spent five decades reading this economy through every cycle it has produced, and he has built his reputation on interpreting what the data supports rather than what the room wants to hear. For an industry where households commit to 20-year decisions, that honesty and accuracy is worth a great deal.”
“I take pride in my association with BetterBond, which plays a key role in the facilitation of home ownership in South Africa,” says Dr Botha. “This is a sector whose expansion is vital for driving economic growth, creating jobs and ensuring socio-political stability.”
Dr Botha remains a self-employed economic researcher and continues to advise other organisations, including the Optimum Investment Group, Currencies Direct and GOPA Worldwide Consultants. For BetterBond, that independence is central to the appointment.
“Dr Botha’s value to us has never rested on his agreeing with us,” says Potgieter. “It rests on the fact that he brings an independent record to the work we publish, and that our clients, our estate agent partners and the public can weigh what he says on its own merits. That is exactly the standard we want applied to it.”