Rand reacts to #Cabinetreshuffle

Published Feb 26, 2018

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JOHANNESBURG - The South African rand turned positive as news of a cabinet reshuffle broke on Monday evening. 

Shortly before the announcement of the reshuffle, the rand was 0.09% stronger against the dollar. 

The rand opened strongly on Monday morning, trading at R11.55 against the US dollar. 

Following the announcement made by President Cyril Ramaphosa, the rand traded at R11.54 against the US dollar, R16.12 against the pound and R14.21 against the Euro at 10:25pm. 

Ramaphosa announced Nhlanhla Nene will be taking over the post as the new Finance Minister of South Africa, replacing Malusi Gigaba.

Malusi Gigaba has been moved back to his old position as the minister of Home Affairs.

Ramaphosa also announced David Mabuza as his deputy president.

Nhlanhla Nene served as Finance Minister between 2014 to 2015 and was subsequently axed by former president Jacob Zuma in favor of MP David van Rooyen.

Also read: Meet SA's new Finance Minister, Nhlanhla Nene

On February 15, Ramaphosa was elected and sworn in as South Africa's new president by the National Assembly, a day after the deeply unpopular Jacob Zuma was forced to resign by the ruling party.

Ramaphosa, 65, was the sole candidate put forward by the National Assembly and takes up the top post almost two decades after he was favoured by Nelson Mandela as his successor, only to be pushed aside by the party in favour of Thabo Mbeki.

He promised to tackle corruption and a massive rent-seeking scandal that has lost state-owned companies billions and embroiled Zuma, his son Duduzane and several Cabinet ministers. The issue was "on our radar screens", he said.

- BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE 

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