Consumer prices (CPI) during each president's tenure

Every president since 1991, ranked by how consumer prices (CPI) changed from their first day in office. Politare shows what happened during a tenure; it does not claim the office-holder caused it.

#	President	In office	Total	Per year	Chart
1	Thabo Mbeki	14 Jun 1999 – 25 Sep 2008	+61.4% May 1999 → Aug 2008	+5.3%/yr
2	Jacob Zuma	9 May 2009 – 15 Feb 2018	+56.2% Apr 2009 → Jan 2018	+5.2%/yr
3	Cyril Ramaphosa	15 Feb 2018 – now	+48.5% Jan 2018 → Sep 2026	+4.7%/yr
4	Nelson Mandela	10 May 1994 – 14 Jun 1999	+45.4% Apr 1994 → May 1999	+7.6%/yr

Sorted by total, highest first. Every row is indexed to the last month complete before the first day in office ("from" marks a start that had to move because that period had no data, or because the period cut it); Levels are per cent changes, rates are differences in %; "per year" compounds levels and divides rates. Tenures with under 12 months, or under three observations, are left out. index, 2010 = 100 · Statistics South Africa consumer price index via the IMF (CPI, headline, all urban areas, the bureau's base years spliced by the IMF, 2010 = 100) · South Africa data · as of Oct 2026.