Financial losses rippled across the spectrum as South Africa last night absorbed the news that President Cyril Ramaphosa could resign – unless pushed – following the release of a report by Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo on the Phala Phala forex scandal.
This morning, as the ANC’s top six leaders from its National Executive Committee met at Luthuli House to thrash out what to do, with the President in attendance of course, the rand looked set to get pummelled even more.
This morning, when the markets reopened, it had weakened 4% against the dollar overnight after slipping 2.16% against the Greenback last night.
Early losses recorded last night at about 20:00 represented the worst performance against the US currency since June 2020 when harsh Covid-19 lockdown measures damaged the local economy.
The rand’s performance against the pound and euro is even worse.
It slipped 3.7% against the British currency to R21.54 and 3.26% against the euro to R18.47.
How bad can things still get?
Very bad.
Pray that David Mabuza isn’t our president by day’s end.
