The rand continued its free fall against major currencies on Friday morning as the nation awoke to the shock news that Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan had been axed and replaced by former home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba as part of a major Cabinet reshuffle announced at midnight by President Jacob Zuma. In a fall reminiscent of that witnessed in the wake of Nenegate in December 2015, when Zuma replaced then finance minister Nhlanhla Nene with the relatively unknown Des van Rooyen, the rand plummeted overnight, losing a further almost 3% against the dollar, pound and euro in opening trade. The local currency reached intraday worst levels of R13.6282 to the dollar, R14.5501 against the euro and R17.0017 against the pound before managing to claw back some of the losses. At 8.16am, the rand was at R13.4656 to the dollar from an overnight close of R13.2644. It was at R14.3850 against the euro from R14.1566 previously and at R16.7961 against the pound from R16.5395. The euro was at $1....
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