JOHANNESBURG - The rand made some slight gains on the US dollar following the news that the State Of The Nation (Sona) 2018 address will be postponed.
Following the announcement made by speaker of South Africa’s parliament, Baleka Mbete, the at about 14:40pm on Tuesday, the rand showed that it gained 5cents to the US dollar, moving from R12.09 to R12.05.
Also read: Parliament working to ensure budget speech goes ahead on Feb 21
Mbete also said that parliament was working to ensure that a budget speech by Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba would go ahead on February 21, despite the president’s state of the nation address being postponed.
“This postponement has taken into account the scheduled tabling of the national budget in the next two weeks and we are going all out to make sure that the budget is not disturbed or postponed at all,” Baleka Mbete told reporters.
Mbete was addressing journalists outside Parliament to announce the official postponement of SONA. She was with Thandi Modise, the chairperson of the National Council Of Provinces.