All South Africans should grasp this golden opportunity

The Times Editorial: The recent rip-roaring run in the gold price is good news for South Africa in several respects. Investors are buying gold (and rands) because they have scant faith in the future of the US and its currency. Since the credit crash of 2007, the world's biggest economy has lurched from crisis to crisis.

The US has attempted to spend its way out of the mire. It believes an open-ended policy of near-zero interest rates will somehow spur retail banks to open the taps and resume lending to cash-starved consumers and businesses.

The Federal Reserve begins another round of "quantitative easing" soon. This means the Fed will buy trillions more of its government's bonds, which will give President Barack Obama's finance mandarins cheap dollars, which they can then lend to commercial banks at rock-bottom rates. That's the theory, anyway.

Investors aren't buying the story. They see little evidence of all those dollars trickling down to US manufacturers and exporters. Instead, they're seeing a steady devaluation of the dollar and the rapid emergence of a new breed of global super-powers. Chief among them is China, but flying in its wake are emerging economies such as South Africa. Given our boundless prospects, foreign investors have piled in to our bonds and shares.

So, when we see a spike in the gold price, we're seeing a world that has grown sick and tired of the US and its problems. It's looking elsewhere for growth. That means a weaker dollar, a stronger rand and low inflation.

Rather than bemoan it, we should be in raptures. A strong rand gives everyone, from the government to industry, the chance to beef up their productive capacity by buying imported capital equipment at bargain prices.

Overseas investors have spotted South Africa's potential. It's about time we all bought in to the success story of a lifetime.