South African currency recovers with new finance minister

South African President Jacob Zuma appointed Rooyen after firing the previous finance minister, Nhlanhla Nene, who had held the post for about 18 months.

Zuma has led the ANC since 2007, but the debacle over the key role of finance minister pointed to a major power shift within the party that Nelson Mandela led to power in 1994.

To fire a widely respected Minister on Wednesday night, replacing him with a largely-unknown individual, then remove the replacement on Sunday night and recalling a minister demoted from the same position a few years ago, suggests they have.

On Thursday, David van Rooyen was sworn in. Before his latest appointment, Gordhan held co-operative governance ministry, which van Rooyen now takes over.

He also vowed that South Africa “will not cut pro-poor programmes”.

The growing scandal surrounding South African Airways (reported last week by TP) is threatening to destabilise the country’s government, which has just named its third finance minister in a week.

Party leader Mmusi Maimane says he’s written to National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete asking for a no-confidence debate to be scheduled early in the New Year.

In attempts to assuage fears of investors, Gordhan said the government will “protect all those invested in the South African economy”. The currency gained 5.2 percent against the US dollar, 5.5 percent versus the euro and 5.7 percent against sterling.

“It would be warranted to see further widening in credit spreads and depreciation of the rand”. The country had narrowly missed entering a recession with less than 1 percent growth, said Statistics South Africa.

“I have been associated with the finance family for nearly two decades”.

President Jacob Zuma is under pressure to step down after he swapped South Africa’s finance minister twice in five days, wiping billions off the stock market and raising fears of another ratings agency downgrade.

Mostly, it leaves questions over the direction of economic policy, the group said in a statement on Monday.

“Whoever advised him needs to be sacked and fired immediately”, Mboweni said, referring to Zuma, in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Guy Johnson and Jonathan Ferro from Johannesburg on Monday.

Althgough Gordhan’s appointment raised hopes on the markets, bigger problems remain to be addressed by the government, Mbongolwane said.

Mr Nene’s reluctance to approve a plan to build several nuclear power stations at a cost of up to $100bn is thought to have contributed to his removal as finance minister.

Myeni wants to amend the original contract in order to involve South African parties.