Gill Marcus will quit as Reserve Bank governor in November, she announced yesterday.
"I think there is a cooling-off period of six months. I will decide then what I want to do," she said.
Marcus, who gave no reason for her decision, became the bank's first woman governor in late 2009.
She steered the economy out of a recession in the wake of the global economic meltdown.
She leaves the Bank with the country again tilting towards recession, burdened with often violent strikes, moribund growth and painfully high unemployment.
The rand weakened sharply on the news that Marcus would step down.
Razia Khan, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank, said that was a "knee-jerk response" that reflected "the esteem in which governor Marcus is held by the markets".
Her successor is predicted to be a Bank insider.
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