Rand crashes 5%‚ banks expected to go into free-fall as Zuma fires Gordhan

The rand plummeted more than 5% on Friday morning. At 7.47 am the currency was trading at R13.53/$‚ from Thursday’s R12.79/$‚ following President Jacob Zuma’s midnight axing of Pravin Gordhan as finance minister.

It now remains to be seen if the rand’s crash will be even worse than its 11% dive over the three days of Nenegate‚ when it fell from R14.49/$ on December 8 2015 before Zuma replaced Nhlanhla Nene with Des van Rooyen‚ to R16.04/$ three days later before Van Rooyen was replaced by Gordhan.

• FIRED‚ MOVED and SAFE: These are the ministers hit by Zuma's swinging axePresident Jacob Zuma effected his latest Cabinet reshuffle on Thursday; a merry-go-round that saw no less than 10 changes to his ministers alone.

The JSE’s banks are bound to go into free-fall when the stock exchange opens at 9am. On December 10 2015‚ the JSE’s banking index lost 13.5%.

• Save South Africa calls for protest after Cabinet reshuffleSave South Africa has called on all citizens to assemble outside National Treasury on Friday morning following the removal of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan in a late-night Cabinet reshuffle.

Zuma’s appointment of former home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba as finance minister sent the rand 5% weaker against the euro to R14.39 from R13.72 and 5.3% weaker against the pound to R16.82/£ from R15.98/£.

-TMG Digital/BDLive