Johannesburg - South African President Jacob Zuma named his second finance minister in four days after criticism from business groups and his own party, sparking a rebound in the rand and bonds.
Zuma reappointed Pravin Gordhan following market turmoil that sent the rand to record lows and bond yields to the highest in seven years. The president provoked outrage and an investor exodus on December 9, when he fired Nhlanhla Nene, who had held the post for about 18 months, and replaced him with a little-known lawmaker, David van Rooyen. On Sunday, Zuma said “after receiving many representations to reconsider my decision.” The rand jumped the most since 2008, while bond yields fell for the first time since November 24.
The change of heart raises questions about Zuma’s standing within the African National Congress. Gordhan, 66, was finance minister from 2009 to May 2014, when he was moved to the cooperative governance ministry and replaced by Nene, who was then his deputy. Gordhan steered the economy through the first recession in 17 years, while fending off pressure from labor unions to increase spending.
“It may well have been the case that an unprecedented amount of criticism from within the ANC, as well as the gravity of the financial market sell-off, forced a re-think from President Zuma,” Razia Khan, head of Africa economic research at Standard Chartered Plc in London, said by e-mail on Sunday. “Markets will welcome this news, with a strong likelihood that South African assets will rally. However, further reassurances will likely be needed for any deeper, sustained rally in South African markets.”
Spending ceiling
The shock appointment of Van Rooyen followed less than a week after Fitch Ratings downgraded the country’s debt to BBB-, the lowest investment-grade level, and Standard and Poor’s lowered its outlook to negative, putting Africa’s most- industrialised nation on course for junk status. Van Rooyen will now head the cooperative governance ministry, under which local governments fall.
Gordhan will ensure “adherence to the set expenditure ceiling while maintaining a stable trajectory of our debt portfolio, as set out in the February 2015 budget,” Zuma said in a statement. There is no swearing-in ceremony planned since he is already a minister and is changing portfolios, Bongani Majola, Zuma’s spokesman, said by phone.
The rand strengthened the most since October 2008 against the dollar, and was up 4.7 percent at 15.1491 at 8: 23 a.m. in Johannesburg. The yield on rand-denominated government bonds due in December 2026 dropped 105 basis points to 9.34 percent. The city’s stock market had posted its worst week in a year, with R170 billion ($10.7 billion) wiped off the value of equities in two days after Nene’s firing, according to exchange operator, JSE.
“This is positive in the sense it shows Zuma’s power is more constrained than his actions last week suggested,” Peter Attard Montalto, an analyst at Nomura International, said by text message on Sunday. “But it is also very damaging to him and one must increase the probability that he is recalled now.”
Zuma, 73, initially gave no reason for removing Nene. The Minister in the Presidency, Jeff Radebe, said other cabinet members weren’t informed of the president’s plans. After widespread criticism, Zuma announced on December 11 that Nene would be nominated as the head of the African regional centre of the Brics New Development Bank. He added that there was no obligation to tell anyone about his choices for the cabinet.
Fed rate increase
The president issued a series of statements after markets roiled following Nene’s ouster, from pledging fiscal prudence to denials of an affair with the chairwoman of South African Airways, the state-owned national carrier.
The market turmoil could not have come at a worse time for South Africa as investors brace for the first US Federal Reserve interest-rate increase in almost a decade and a potential exodus of capital from emerging markets. The Fed will announce its rates decision on December 16. South Africa’s economic cluster in cabinet will meet on Tuesday to prepare for a special meeting on the economy on December 18, the Presidency said.
“This is not about Gordhan or Van Rooyen or Nene, it’s about Zuma,” Dawie Roodt, chief economist at Pretoria-based Efficient Group, said by phone on Sunday. “I can’t see how Zuma can politically survive much longer under these circumstances.”
-With assistance from James Regan.
BLOOMBERG