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"We can thank our friends in Greece for most of the rand's troubles - it took only one minor opposition party to dislike the debt deal and then we have this announcement in Pretoria tomorrow - things felt uncomfortable as soon as that news came out," a local rand trader said.

At 16:04 local time, the rand was bid at R7.7288 to the dollar from its previous close of R7.5803. It was bid at R10.1934 to the euro from R10.0748 before, and at R12.1850 against sterling from R11.9938 previously.

The euro was bid at US$1.3182 from its previous close of US$1.3275.

Earlier, the SA Reserve Bank said the presidency, the Ministry of Finance and the bank would make an announcement of national importance on Saturday in Pretoria.

"The President, Mr Jacob Zuma, the Minister of Finance, Mr Pravin Gordhan and the Governor of the SARB, Ms Gill Marcus will be in attendance," the statement added.

Meanwhile Dow Jones Newswires reported that the euro extended a slide in European trading hours on Friday and the Australian dollar continued a pullback from Wednesday's six-month high against the dollar, as weary investors booked profits on positive currency bets and fears re-emerged over Greece's ability to stave off a default.

Greek political leaders agreed on Thursday to stringent spending cuts required by its international creditors, but eurozone finance ministers have demanded these measures be approved by parliament before they finally sign off on the deal.

Their demands set the stage for a further week of uncertainty over the country's long-awaited bailout and debt-restructuring package. But for now, a Greek bailout to stave off a messy debt default remained elusive, with another eurozone meeting called for next week, the country gripped by a nationwide strike and the small nationalist Laos party already indicating it would not vote for the deal.

Against this backdrop, the euro slid against the dollar in Asian trade from Thursday's near-two-month peak above $1.33, and marked a new low for the day below $1.32 in European hours after an early session rebound faltered.

"What we're seeing today is a little bit of profit-taking. Investors are selling the euro against the dollar and sterling and the Australian dollar against the US dollar," said Peter Kinsella, currency strategist at Commerzbank.

"That's because we've got a considerable amount of event risk next week with more eurozone meetings and then there's fears that once Greece is sorted out, it could be Portugal or Spain next," he added.