Rand plunges, banks expected to go into free fall as Zuma fires Gordhan
‘The market will struggle to digest Malusi Gigaba, someone who is clearly being put in a role to do a particular job by Zuma’
The rand had plummeted 5% to R13.47/$ by 6.30am on Friday morning, 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/£. "The market will struggle to digest Gigaba. Someone who has been effective at Home Affairs but is clearly being put in a role to do a particular job by Zuma and viewed as l...
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