It speaks volumes that the rand immediately strengthened by about 30c to the US dollar as Shaun Abrahams, the bumbling national director of public prosecutions, tied himself in knots trying to explain why he was withdrawing fraud and theft charges against finance minister Pravin Gordhan. It was a dramatic U-turn. After all, it was only three weeks ago, on October 12, that Abrahams stood in the same spot, arguing fiercely why he was right to prosecute Gordhan. Economically, that decision a few weeks back was disastrous: the rand plunged to R14.49 to the dollar, bank stocks shed R50bn in value almost overnight, and bond yields spiked.Analysts were adamant that unless Abrahams was dead right about Gordhan, it was an immensely foolish gamble to take with the country’s economy when ratings agencies were mulling a possible downgrade. In the end, it turned out Abrahams was dead wrong. On Monday, he backpedalled, saying he was satisfied that "Gordhan did not have the requisite intention to ...
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