The Roots of the Symposium on the Legacy of Ludwig M. Lachmann

In May 2006, I took up the post of Senior Lecturer in Economics at the School of Economic and Business Sciences (SEBS) at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg. I knew something about Wits because Ludwig M. Lachmann (February 1, 1906–December 17, 1990) was affiliated with it for much of his academic career.

During my interview in September 2005, I was not quite sure about how much of the Lachmann legacy would still be present at Wits. I was very curious about the matter.

I had done my homework. I wanted to make sure that both selection committee and interview panel knew about my interest in Lachmann and the Austrian School. In my application I indicated such research interest, among a couple of other more traditional areas. While it worked for the selection committee, I had still to see what the interview panel thought. Fortunately for me, the three senior members of the (very numerous and very intimidating) interview panel – Francis Antonie, at the time Head of what is now known as the School of Governance, Yunus Ballim, at the time Deputy Vice-Chancellor, and Rashad Cassim, at the time Head of SEBS – had also done their homework.