The rand plummeted more than 5% on Friday morning. At 7.47 am the currency was trading at R13.53/$‚ from Thursday’s R12.79/$‚ following President Jacob Zuma’s midnight axing of Pravin Gordhan as finance minister.
It now remains to be seen if the rand’s crash will be even worse than its 11% dive over the three days of Nenegate‚ when it fell from R14.49/$ on December 8 2015 before Zuma replaced Nhlanhla Nene with Des van Rooyen‚ to R16.04/$ three days later before Van Rooyen was replaced by Gordhan.
The JSE’s banks are bound to go into free-fall when the stock exchange opens at 9am. On December 10 2015‚ the JSE’s banking index lost 13.5%.
Zuma’s appointment of former home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba as finance minister sent the rand 5% weaker against the euro to R14.39 from R13.72 and 5.3% weaker against the pound to R16.82/£ from R15.98/£. -Tiso Black Star Group/BDLive
