The president’s initial appointment to the finance ministry of David van Rooyen, a relatively unknown lawmaker and Zuma loyalist, triggered a wave of criticism and a market sell-off that saw the rand plunge to a new all-time low on Friday. In a statement on Sunday, the president said that after replacing Nene he had “received many representations to reconsider my decision”.
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Responding to the question on the three mass protests planned for tomorrow in a bid to demand that Zuma resign, Duarte said: “They have a right to march but we do not support their call at all”. In a written announcement late Sunday, Zuma reappointed as finance minister Pravin Gordhan, who held the post 2009-14.
President Jacob Zuma is under pressure to step down after he changed South Africa’s finance minister twice in five days, wiping billions off the stock market and raising fears of another ratings agency downgrade.
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. And we trust Minister Gordhan will continue to hold the line of former Minister Nene in respect of SAA and the nuclear build procurement deal.
In fact, the ANC’s Jessie Duarte said nothing that the ANC has not said before. On Sunday Zuma replaced van Rooyen with Pravin Gordhan, swopping the two men between portfolios. The appointment of Gordhan resulted in a 5 percent jump in the rand against the dollar.
“The national officials met with the president [on Sunday]… and the president himself offered that he wanted to make the change because of the impact of what none of us had anticipated”, she said.
South African economy has been under strain recently but is still the second-largest economy in Africa behind Nigeria.
“South Africa has reached the ceiling of the cost Jacob Zuma can inflict upon our nation”.
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.
The slump in commodities has hit South Africa hard.
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Tito Mboweni, a former central bank governor and member of the party’s National Executive Committee, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV that “the president has handled this situation very badly”. Jeff Radebe, a minister in the president’s office, said the following in a media briefing.
