Another day, another rand-dollar rate
See, that’s how you run a country. Into the ground
Last Monday morning. The good times were rolling as the rand touched R12.31 to the US dollar, a 20-month high. You would have to go back to before the shock of December 2015, when President Jacob Zuma fired finance minister Nhlanhla Nene and replaced him with backbencher David Des van Rooyen, to see the currency at such levels. Within a few weeks, the rand had dived to R16.88/$. Van Rooyen’s replacement, after just three days in office, was Pravin Gordhan. Even after Gordhan took office, the rand continued to worm its way weakly into the red against the dollar. Then Gordhan and his deputy, Mcebisi Jonas, pulled off the impossible. Presiding over an economy bereft of direction and subject to bouts of populist speculation by Zuma, they staved off what had been a dead-certain ratings downgrade.
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