RAND RALLIES OVER 4% AS RAMAPHOSA WINS

Cape Town – The rand rallied to a nine-month high under R12.60 to the US dollar as news broke that Cyril Ramaphosa won the ANC leadership race at the party’s 54th National Conference at Nasrec in Johannesburg yesterday.

But it was not only the markets that erupted in cheer. While South Africa was waiting with bated breath for the result, the visuals coming from Nasrec showed jubilant crowds and Ramaphosa looking far happier than his opponent Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

Not even rumours of a recount could dampen the spirit at Nasrec, with delegates singing as they as they bided their time until the announcement of the official result was made at around 7pm yesterday.

In addition to Ramaphosa the ANC Top 6 are Mabuza, deputy president; Ace Magashule, secretary general; Jessie Duarte, deputy secretary general; Gwede Mantashe, national chairperson and Paul Mashatile, treasurer general.

TreasuryOne dealer Wichard Cilliers earlier told Fin24 in a snapnote that the rand remained strong at R12.60/US$ despite the rumour of a recount as “Cyril has won but the NDZ camp is unhappy with the result”.

The crowd lifted the roof as the announcement came that the deputy president received a total of 2 440 votes, while President Jacob Zuma’s ex-wife and the former African Union chairperson received 2 261 votes.

This meant there was a difference of 179 votes between the two candidates. The rand had been strengthening for the past month, in part due to sentiment that Ramaphosa, who is seen by some as more business friendly than Dlamini-Zuma, would claim the top spot.
Geoff Blount, managing director of BayHill Capital, said the local currency may weaken further.

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