Professor Vishnu Padayachee, 1952–2021

Abstract

On Saturday, the 29 May 2021, the sad news came that Vishnu Padayachee, a dear friend and mentor, had died after a year-long illness. Mahavishnu (Vishnu) Padayachee was born in Umkomaas and commenced his studies at the University of Durban-Westville. He completed a PhD in economics at the University of Natal in 1990. Vishnu was a key member of the ANC’s Macro-economic Research Group (MERG) which proposed a Structuralist and Post-Keynesian approach to economic policy, and which recognized effective demand failures and unemployment as key problems in South Africa. The ANC’s abandonment of this approach in favour of a neoliberal one disappointed him deeply. His long academic career began with a Junior Lectureship in economics at the University of Durban-Westville and ended with him becoming the holder of the Derek Schrier and Cecily Cameron Chair in Development Economics at the University of the Witwatersrand. He also held a lifetime Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. and an honorary doctorate in economics conferred on him in 2018 by Rhodes University. As an academic and researcher, Vishnu was widely cited, being known for his research in economics, economic history, economic transformation, and development. He was the author or co-author of 10 books and monographs, numerous book chapters, and over a hundred journal articles. Vishnu regularly spoke at local and international conferences and made important contributions to public debates. Vishnu was not just an academic, and had many other interests and hobbies. He enjoyed, and wrote a book on cricket in South Africa. He was a book collector and dealer, and co-owner of the legendary Ike’s Books and Collectables in Durban. In 1996, Vishnu was appointed a non-executive Director of the SA Reserve Bank and served in this capacity for 12 years. This appointment further stimulated his interest developed in MERG and contributed to his vast knowledge of central banking in general and the SA Reserve Bank in particular. Future generations of scholars will continue to benefit from his work in this field. Economics is a discipline in which dogmas and articles of faith abound. Supervisors who can lift themselves above their own articles of faith are regrettably rare. Although Vishnu’s main intellectual influences were heterodox, especially Marx and Keynes, he had no difficulty supervising neo-classical scholars working on topics he found interesting. He did not just bring tolerant eclecticism to his supervisions, he bought immense energy and enthusiasm. After hearing of an archive that had not yet been plumbed by