Rand’s not picking up

WHEN Water Affairs and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane trivialised the fall of the rand following the dismissal of the then minister of finance Pravin Gordhan and his deputy Mcebisi Jonas and replacing them with the subsequent dubious appointments, she said,“The rand can fall, we’ll just pick it up” or words to that effect. Sadly it is not that simple. The rand if assumed to be worth 100 cents a week before today, was in fact worth no more that 89 cents by the time she demonstrated how “simple” it was to pick it up.

In the 1980’s one could buy about $1.5 for a rand.

Then came PW Botha’s disastrous “Rubicon” speech when the world expected a change in isolationist/ segregationist policies and overnight one suddenly needed R2.7 to buy $1 or a drop of more than 50% overnight, and it never recovered.

The rand steadily lost ground due to the perceived political instability and by the turn of the century one needed about R6 to buy $1 and we are now in the vicinity of R13 to R14 to buy $1.

That means that from the PW Botha speech to today, the rand has lost about 500% of its value and this trend seems to be maintained under the ANC’s poor management of the economy.

Taken just from 2000 to today, 17 years later, the rand needs to be “picked up” by over 200% to achieve a semblance of redeemed value – a daunting task with our economy downgraded to junk status.

If our lady would bend to pick up the rand, she will have to unbend very slowly – it may take 10 or 20 years or forever, to get back to where we were in the halcyon days of Nelson Mandela.

She may wish to turn into a pillar of salt somewhere along the distance from the floor to her pocket! Ben Smit Melkbosstrand.