Van Rooyen, thrust into the most powerful ministerial post despite having no national or provincial government experience last week, vacates the post after being sworn in on Thursday and will now fill Gordhan’s Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs post.
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His re-appointment sent the currency up, recovering from just over 16 rand to the dollar to about 15 by Monday morning, according to currency site xe.com.
“Our economy has expressed enormous ill-confidence in President Zuma as it was sent into a tailspin, losing over R200-billion in value in the past days, and forcing up South Africa’s sovereign debt costs that will ultimately steal funding from the poor”.
Zuma assigned Gordhan, who has also served with distinction as the Commissioner of the South African Revenue Services before excelling as Minister of Finance, with several tasks to address the country’s failing economy.
The Johannesburg stock markets dropped by 2.94 percent, while the rand fell by over 5 percent, falling to a record low of R16.04 to the dollar on Friday, its lowest level in history.
South Africa’s rand leapt on Monday after President Jacob Zuma named Gordhan as the new Finance Minister. “His latest decision will make people look at him as a person who makes decisions that are detrimental to the country, and they will look at him as a person who can not be taken seriously”, Mashele says.
A statement from Mr Zuma’s office said he had “received many representations” to reconsider his decision to appoint Mr van Rooyen.
Zuma sacked Nhlanhla Nene from the ministry late on Wednesday, sparking a wave of criticism and financial turmoil, and replaced him with the relatively unknown lawmaker David van Rooyen.
Van Rooyen will take over from Gordhan as minister for cooperative governance and traditional affairs.
The slump in commodities has hit South Africa hard. I can’t see how on earth Zuma is going to survive as president of South Africa.
Nene’s removal came less than a week after South African debt was moved closer to “junk” status by rating companies, which highlighted growth predicted at a sluggish 1.4 percent this year, along with rising interest and inflation rates.
South African economy has been under strain recently but is still the second-largest economy in Africa behind Nigeria. “We had to reclaim our space and we had to reassert the authority of the ANC, ” said one leader who asked not to be named.
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Pravin Gordhan said he’s ready for the challenge, BusinessDayLive reported.
