Cape Town – The rand plummeted against major international currencies on Wednesday evening shortly after President Jacob Zuma removed Nhlanhla Nene as finance minister.
By 21:20 the rand was trading at R16.34 to the euro, down 2.74%, and R22.5 against the pound, down 2.5%.
The rand was down 1.39% against the greenback at R14.83/$.
Zuma announced late on Wednesday the removal of Nene from the Finance Portfolio in Cabinet, saying Nene had been removed ahead of his “deployment to another strategic position”.
Zuma has appointed ANC member of parliament, David van Rooyen, as the new Minister of Finance.
Van Rooyen served as the Whip of the Standing Committee on Finance and as Whip of the Economic Transformation Cluster.
“The new deployment of Mr Nene will be announced in due course,” Zuma said.
The dollar sends SA a message. #Nene #vanrooyen pic.twitter.com/mg0M0tR46L
— Gareth Morgan (@gareth_morgan) December 9, 2015
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