‘Tweeto’ Mboweni rattles the rand

Finance minister Tito Mboweni declared war on someone via Twitter late on Thursday night.

He may have joined US President Donald Trump in declaring war on the media, or he may have joined the media in its war on Trump. His cryptic tweets are open to many different interpretations.

"I like fighting, just point out who we [are] fighting against," said one of Mboweni's twitter followers, Tony Yengeni.

Some of the comments on Mboweni's posts blamed the new finance minister for the rand's woes in the early hours of Friday morning. The resurgent dollar, following hawkish comments by the US Federal Reserve Bank on Thursday evening, made most currencies slide, but the rand has fared worse than most.

Various commentators wondered if Mboweni's account had been hacked, and everyone appeared puzzled by what the finance minister was trying to communicate.

laingr@businesslive.co.za