Zuma learns his lessons

Anyone who has been following updates on South Africa, will grossly agree that president Jacob Zuma has learned his lessons. On Wednesday, South African president replaced, long standing finance minister, Nhlanhla Nene, with little known David Van Rooyen and market just didn't like it. It pushed Rand to new record low after the decision.

Jumping from 14.5 per Dollar, by Friday, Rand traded as high as 16 in the spot market. Around 8% drop in just three days. Despite, Fitch assigning junk rating to South African bonds, earlier in the month, sacking the finance minister led to more negative views.

However, by Sunday night, he replaced Mr. Van Rooyen by Pravin Gordhan, who has more experience and well known in the market. Ran is one of the top performer today, up about 5.25%, trading at 15.06 per Dollar.

Some analysts, however point out that damage is already done. Replacing a newly appointed finance minister in just 2-3 days bad for country's reputations, as the president should have taken well-considered decision in such important matters. Opposition has accused Mr. Zuma of playing Russian roulette.

Other are more optimist. They point out that it is good that Mr. Zuma is ready to correct mistakes and respond to markets, which would prevent him from taking really bad decisions.