Johannesburg | Tuesday
FOLLOWING calls to probe the rand’s depreciation, President Thabo Mbeki has appointed a commission of inquiry to investigate the decline.
Presidential representative Bheki Khumalo said on Tuesday that the commission, to be headed by former Judge President of the Labour Appeals Court, advocate John Myburgh, would commence its work ”as a matter of the utmost urgency”.
Myburgh would be assisted by an unspecified number of skilled commissioners, yet to be appointed.
South African Chamber of Business CEO, Kevin Wakeford, said on Tuesday that he had given President Thabo Mbeki information about ”dubious financial methods” that had contributed to the demise of the rand in recent weeks.
He had deemed this to be in the best interests of the nation, Wakeford said a press statement.
”This matter is now firmly in the hands of the Presidency and it is now the prerogative of the Presidency to respond to it in an appropriate manner.”
He said Sacob had no doubt that the Presidency would act expeditiously on the issue.
Wakeford also stated emphatically that he would not be issuing any further comments to the media until the process had followed its course.
The government had earlier appeared to pour cold water on Wakeford’s claims, telling the Sapa news agency that Wakeford’s letter was one of many that the government had received on factors relating to the depreciation of the currency.
The government’s communications department said a variety of proposals had been received from ”citizens” on how to tackle the causes of the currency’s decline.
”Government will weigh them all on their merits through the relevant authorities to determine what action if any should be taken in addition to what is already being undertaken,” Khumalo said.
The rand has been on a downward slide since the beginning of 2001 when R7,58 bought a dollar.
By September it had weakened to R8,46 against the greenback. On September 11, when terrorists attacked the US using four hijacked passenger airliners, the rand slipped to R8,60 against the dollar.
Late that month it breached the R9 mark and over the Christmas period it plummeted to R13,10 to the dollar and R20,02 against the British pound before recovering.
At 4.40pm on Monday the rand was trading at R11,68 to the dollar and R16,77 to the pound.
Khumalo said that any illegal activities leading to the depreciation of the rand should be Mbeki, addressing more than 40 000 supporters at the African National Congress’ birthday celebrations on Sunday, said globally South Africa had one of the best performing economies during ”this period of an economic slowdown that is affecting the world economy”.
He said the depreciation of the rand, for reasons difficult to understand, had ”nothing whatsoever to do with our national economy”. – Sapa