CAPE TOWN – With the Medium-term Budget Policy Statement just around the corner the timing of Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene’s request to resign is not ideal.
This is according to TreasuryONE director and head of dealing, Wichard Cilliers, who said on Monday that South Africa needs stability in order to sort out the ailing fiscus. “The ANC is very much still reeling from the maladministration caused by our previous president. The ANC has still got plenty of work ahead of them.
“Splashed all over the news headlines this morning is Nene asking president Ramaphosa to relieve him of his duties… We got to ask our self the question if Nene needs to go, what about (Malusi) Gigaba, (Bathabile) Dlamini, etc?”
Cilliers said the market’s response on the finance minister was fairly muted and “we need to keep an eye on this development locally”.
“With the US closed today trade volumes will probably be subdued,” he said.
Peregrine Treasury Solutions’ corporate treasury manager Bianca Botes said most of the dollar strength was underpinned by high US treasury yields and strong economic and jobs data.
She said the rand was expected to remain skewed towards weakness with an expected range of between R14.78 and R14.99.
The rand was trading at R14.96 to the dollar at 09:00 on Monday as news broke that Nene had asked the President to be let go as Finance Minister.
Cilliers said: “We also need to keep an eye on the dollar as it struggled to edge out further gains after the jobs print on Friday. With the US closed today trade volumes will probably be subdued.”