Trevor Manuel will remain as Minister of Finance after being appointed in the cabinet led by South Africa’s new President, Kgalema Motlanthe. After the announcement of this news, the rand started to strenghthen against the US dollar. Could it just have been a coincidence or does Trevor Manuel have the ‘power’ to dictate which way the rand goes? Earlier in the week when Manuel had said he was going to resign from his position after Thabo Mbeki resigned, the rand took a knock with many saying that loosing Manuel as Minister of Finance would leave a lot of uncertainty in the South Africa economy. But Manuel was quick to say he would be available to the new leaderhsip if chosen. And today we have just seen Manuel being included in the new cabinet as Minister of Finance showing signs of stability in the governance of the country. 

At 17:21 the rand was bid at R8.1085/$ from a previous close of R8.1543. It was bid at R11.8746/€ from a previous R11.9075 and at R14.9670/£ from R15.0346 before. Is this all due to Manuel staying or because the US dollar is just under a lot of pressure as the US seeks a rescue plan?

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