Former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene is not so important that he can cause the rand to plummet, ANC Youth League president Collen Maine said on Friday.<\/p>\n
“Nene is not so special that the rand can fall because of him, who is he?,” he told News24.<\/p>\n
“It’s not about Nhlanhla Nene, it’s because of the recession we are in that the economy is not growing… and there are problems with the rand. He might be beautiful to others but he’s not so beautiful that he can make the rand fall.”<\/p>\n
Maine said the “hullabaloo” around the rand falling because of the reshuffle was mischievous.<\/p>\n
President Jacob Zuma announced late on Wednesday that he was replacing Nene with ANC backbencher David van Rooyen.<\/p>\n
He said Nene would be redeployed to another “strategic” position to be announced in due course.<\/p>\n
Just after Zuma’s announcement the rand started to drop.<\/p>\n
According to Fin24 by 21:20 on Wednesday the rand was trading at R14.83 to the dollar, down 1.39%, R16.34 to the euro, down 2.74%, and R22.5 against the pound, down 2.5%.<\/p>\n
It continued to drop on Thursday and Friday.<\/p>\n
At Friday lunchtime the rand was trading at R15.77 to the dollar, R17.32 to the euro and R23.93 to the pound.<\/p>\n
However, Maine is still of the view that this was because of a “recession” and not because of Nene’s axing.<\/p>\n
“This hullabaloo that is in the country, that the rand has fallen because of the results of the reshuffle are quite mischievous because you would know that we are in a recession and our economy is not growing at the rate at which we want it to grow, even during Nhlanhla Nene’s term,” he said.<\/p>\n
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