President Jacob Zuma said he made the correct decision to replace Nhlanhla Nene as Finance minister, saying the markets overreacted and people exaggerated the situation.<\/p>\n
The rand plunged to an historical low of R16\/$ when Zuma made ANC backbencher David van Rooyen the new minister. January has seen the rand hit even new lows, mostly because of market woes in China. On Sunday night it was sitting at R16.24\/$.<\/p>\n
He was allegedly persuaded by his senior leadership and the banking sector of the South Africa to quickly find a solution to avoid a total collapse of the economy, which he did by reappointing Pravin Gordhan to his old post.<\/p>\n
However, Zuma told eNCA on Sunday that he refused to take responsibility for the economic fall-out and said he was correct to replace Nene. \u201cThere was an exaggeration in terms of the reaction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople did not consider many things,\u201d he said. \u201cThe rand had been going down when Nene was there. It had been going down for months and months. It was not triggered by the decision (to remove Nene).\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe removal of Nene was \u2018not breaking the economy\u2019,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople didn\u2019t understand what was happening and they exaggerated the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no single person who can collapse a department, particularly a department like the Treasury, which is well functioning and well established, with a very effective deputy minister, effective director general and DDGs (deputy director generals), etc.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd with one person walking in, that\u2019s going to collapse it. I mean, that is an imagination. He is going to be working with people who have been doing their work. I think there was an overreaction to that issue. It\u2019s not like breaking the economy, it cannot be true.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many analysts complained at the time that Zuma had not given a good enough explanation for Nene\u2019s removal. However, Zuma stuck to his original reason, saying: \u201cNene is a minister and we took a decision that he should head the regional bank of Brics. It\u2019s an international bank\u2026 (and) we want that bank to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zuma said people would have also complained had he allocated Van Rooyen to the Brics post.<\/p>\n
He recalled that the markets acted in a \u201cfunny way\u201d when Trevor Manuel was made Finance minister, who he said turned out to be one of the best in the world.<\/p>\n
Speaking about speeding up economic transformation, Zuma said the process of transformation brought \u201chiccups along the way\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said black empowerment is moving very slowly, because the measure of the economy is so entrenched in many ways.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust take the stock exchange,\u201d he said. \u201cOnly 3% of the majority have a control there. That\u2019s the structure of our economy.<\/p>\n
“We can\u2019t break it in order to correct it,” he said. “We must open up the space. That\u2019s why we talk about infrastructure (and) energy, so that you create the space and you train those that were not trained before so that we can deal with the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have not succeeded to transform the economy,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is one of the key elements in any society. Who owns the economy? If the minority owns the economy (and) not the majority, that influences the life and direction of the country. How do you develop the majority to \u2026 be a part of it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Zuma was speaking after the ANC’s 104 birthday celebrations in Rustenburg and ahead of crucial local government elections, which Zuma said would be one of the toughest they had yet faced.<\/p>\n
Fin24<\/a><\/p>\n Some still idolise apartheid era leaders: Zuma<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n We must defeat the arrogance of power: Zuma<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Zuma admits elections will be tough for ANC<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nMore on Zuma<\/h3>\n