Despite the positive news for South Africa on the political front with Shaun “the Sheep” Abrahams being asked to leave as head of the NPA, this week was a bitter pill to swallow for South Africans as the rand plunged against the US dollar and Moody’s gave us a reality check.
Global News
- Drama with the Turkish Lira has caused havoc in Emerging Market economies over the week. The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is in a spat with President Trump over an American Pastor that Turkey has imprisoned. In an exchange of trade threats, the Turkish Lira was hit hard, dropping by over 30% in just a couple of days.
- This had a knock-on effect on other emerging market currencies with the rand the weakest of the lot at over 16% weaker (intra-day) in three trading days. The Dynasty local Accumulator and Preserver Funds have held up well because of their heavy weighting in offshore investments.
- This week, in more tweets, President Trump, in his all his Presidential glory, called his former aide a dog. This was in response to the Aide Omarosa leaking embarrassing clips of Donald Trump.
- Elon Musk has been in very hot water this week after tweeting that he had enough funding to take Telsa private. Since then the SEC (US Securities and Exchange Commission) has subpoenaed Telsa over misleading investors.
- Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, has passed away at the age of 76, follow the link to pay your RESPECTs.
Local News
- Rating’s agency Moody’s is concerned about the South African government’s current fiscal position in a low growth environment. They do believe, however, that the government can achieve their fiscal objectives over the medium to long-term.
- The Constitutional Court ruled that Shaun Abrahams’ appointment as Head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) was unconstitutional, upon which he was asked to step down.
- Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed Dr Silas Ramaite as acting National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP). President Ramaphosa has been given 90 days by the Constitutional Court to appoint a permanent NDPP.
- The rand remains volatile fluctuating between R14.20 and R15.02 against the US dollar. The rand is 11.5% weaker than what it was before the Turkish crisis.
- Naspers dived 10% on the news that Tencent had its first profit miss in a decade.
- South Africa’s National Treasury denied that the government had approved a bailout package of R59 billion for state-owned companies.