CAPE TOWN - In early trade today, the markets welcomed Jacob Zuma’s resignation as head of state and Cyril Ramaphosa’s impending election.
Zuzana Brixiova, Vice President at Moody’s has been keeping a close eye on these developments in South Africa.
“Moody’s is closely monitoring developments in South Africa and is focused on the policy implications of ongoing changes in leadership. The key point from a credit perspective will be the new leadership’s response to the country’s economic and fiscal challenges and progress in implementing reforms addressing them", said Brixiova.
The rand has continued to soar and went 2% higher around R11.71 against the dollar on Wednesday evening. This morning the rand raced to R11.67 against the dollar in early trade.
It should be noted that the rand strengthened to R11.66 to the dollar at the very moment that Zuma announced that he would be resigning.
The State of the Nation (SONA) is scheduled to happen tomorrow and experts believe that if SONA and the budget speech is well received there will be a chance that Moody's could potentially hold off from downgrading South Africa’s credit rating.