South Africa’s public broadcaster reported on Tuesday leaked conclusions from the official inquiry into the rand’s historic plunge last year, but the government said that the report was incomplete.
Justice Minister Penuell Maduna told the country’s main radio station the report it had was not final because it did not include a response to a dissenting minority report from one of the inquiry’s three commissioners, lawyer Christine Qunta.
”Technically, you don’t have the report, you may find that whatever you are saying might change when they (the other two commissioners) are commenting on the minority report,” he said.
Neither report has been officially released. President Thabo Mbeki launched the inquiry in January after a business leader alleged that ”dubious” deals had helped fuel the rand’s 37% slump against the dollar late last year.
Although the rand has since recovered, its slide has ignited domestic inflation, forcing the central bank to raise interest rates in a move likely to curb sluggish economic growth.
Qunta — known for her views that racism is still prevalent in South Africa — has rejected findings backed by the head of the official inquiry, advocate John Myburgh, and Mandla Gantsho, the chief executive of the Development Bank of Southern Africa.
Maduna told the radio station that President Thabo Mbeki, who launched the inquiry in January, had asked Myburgh and Gantsho to respond to Qunta’s report before he released the inquiry’s findings or made any comments on them himself.
Qunta had not shown the other two her report before submitting it, so the Justice Ministry had sent them a copy and they were preparing a response, he said.
”We don’t have the consolidated report therefore I have nothing to comment on,” he said.
LEAKED REPORT POINTS FINGER AT RESERVE BANK
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) said that the inquiry had found the Reserve Bank’s decision to tighten existing foreign exchange controls for foreign players in October had contributed to the rand’s historic plunge.
This tallied with evidence submitted by bankers to public hearings for the inquiry, who pointed out that foreigners had withdrawn from the market afterwards, causing turnover to fall in a trend which magnified the impact of negative trades.
SABC said the commission had recommended that existing exchange controls be enforced more strictly.
But it had cleared Deutsche Bank — whose offshore asset swaps for three top South African companies were closely scrutinised by the inquiry — of any wrongdoing.
As a result of the inquiry’s investigations, Deutsche Bank agreed with the country’s central bank to arrange deals worth R800-million to offset perceived losses to South Africa’s foreign reserves from the asset swaps.
SABC said the leaked report also found that the slow pace of privatisation contributed to the decline of the rand. – Reuters