http://www.france24.com/en/20151214-zuma-south-africa-anc-welcomes-pravin-gordhans-return-finance-ministry
South Africa's ruling ANC party on Monday welcomed President Jacob Zuma’s reappointment of Pravin Gordhan as finance minister, in a dramatic U-turn that gave Africa's most advanced economy its third finance chief in a week.
The ANC said the decision was an "explicit demonstration of a responsive and accountable government".
The shock announcement restoring Gordhan to the post sent the rand surging nearly 5 percent on Sunday evening, an upward trend that continued well into Monday morning as the battered South African currency strengthened more than 4.5 percent in early trade. Yet the overall market rebound failed to quell a tide of criticism of the president.
“This is reckless by President Zuma, he is playing Russian roulette with the South African economy,” opposition Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane said.
Zuma sacked Nhlanhla Nene from the ministry late last Wednesday, sparking a wave of criticism and financial turmoil, and replaced him with the relatively unknown lawmaker David van Rooyen. Nene’s reluctance to rubber-stamp an ambitious plan to build a number of nuclear power stations to ease severe electricity shortages, a project that might cost as much as $100 billion, is also seen as contributing to his downfall.
The removal of Nene, who was keen to rein in government spending in Africa’s most industrialised nation, sent the rand currency to record lows, sparked a sell-off in bank stocks and sent yields in both local and dollar-denominated debt soaring.
The JSE All-share index, just slightly up 2 percent Monday morning, had shed close to 170 billion rand ($10.68 billion) between Thursday and Friday alone.
Credit agency Fitch had already downgraded South Africa on Dec. 4, leaving the continent’s most sophisticated economy just one notch above “junk” status, and said on Thursday Nene’s firing “raised more negative than positive questions”.
"The markets will welcome back Gordhan to National Treasury," Rand Merchant Bank's currency strategist John Cairns said. "He is a known entity, is his own man and did well when in the post previously. But it is certainly unreasonable to expect all of last week's losses to be reversed - a huge amount of uncertainty has been created in the past few days."
A Reuters poll on Wednesday showed analysts expect the economy to grow just 1.4 percent this year and 1.6 percent next, 0.1 percentage point lower than last month’s forecasts.
“Discipline And Prudence”
Sunday's presidency statement said Gordhan’s role would include “promoting and strengthening the fiscal discipline and prudence” and “working with the financial sector so that its stability is preserved".
It called for “adherence to the set expenditure ceiling while maintaining a stable trajectory of our debt portfolio, as set out in the February 2015 Budget”.
The statement also called for “more inclusive growth and accelerated job creation while continuing the work of ensuring that our debt is stabilised over the medium term”.
Gordhan, most recently minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, was due to be sworn in Monday morning at 10 a.m.” local time (0800 GMT), but the office of President Jacob Zuma announced that the newly appointed finance minister will not be sworn in because he is already a minister.
The Treasury announced Gordhan, who last held the post from 2009 to 2014, will hold a news conference at 1 p.m. local time (1100 GMT) on Monday.
Zuma on Saturday denied rumours he had an affair with the chairwoman of state-owned airline South African Airways amid media speculation the relationship lay behind Nene’s sacking.
The minister had rebuked Dudu Myeni, the airline’s chairwoman and a close ally of Zuma, for mismanaging a 1 billion rand ($62.98 million) deal with Airbus.
Zuma’s office also criticised as a “malicious fabrication” reports that Nene was removed because Myeni was not happy with instructions from the respected former finance minister.
Social media was abuzz on Sunday with calls for anti-Zuma marches. Under the hashtag#ZumaMustFall, individuals on Twitter said they would march in key cities on Wednesday, a public holiday in South Africa and the same day when the Federal Reserve, the US central bank, is expected to raise interest rates - a move set to put emerging markets like South Africa under strain.
Even some supporters of the African National Congress (ANC), Nelson Mandela’s erstwhile liberation movement that has ruled since the end of apartheid in 1994, expressed dismay about Wednesday’s appointment of a Zuma loyalist to the crucial post. They also described his latest appointment as a sign Zuma was losing control.
"It may not be his death knell, but it's certainly the turning of the tide," a former senior anti-apartheid activist and ruling ANC legislator Ben Turok.
Former South African health minister and leading anti-apartheid activist Barbara Hogan on Friday called on Zuma to quit.
Hogan, the highest-profile member of the ANC to come out against the sacking of Nene, said Zuma had crossed a line and needed to be held to account.
South Africa is gearing up for important local elections next year where the ANC is expected to face stiff competition from the Democratic Alliance in urban areas, including the economic hub ofJohannesburg. The countryside remains an ANC stronghold.
Significant erosion of ANC control in metropolitan powerbases could strengthen Zuma’s opponents, especially if South Africans blame him for the floundering economy.
Analyst Razia Khan of Standard Chartered Bank said the week’s turmoil that saw the nation’s currency plunge nearly 9 percent was "perhaps the first instance since 2007 that Zuma has come under severe pressure within the party".
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