Don’t call me stupid, stupid

Having been woken by my children to tell me we had a new, new finance minister I blundered out of bed and scribbled this for my paying clients – forgive the blurriness it is essentially the sleeping pill that’s doing most of the world work.

There were 7 more errors in this paragraph. I just fixed the ones that jumped out and bit me on the nose – and left the crazier ones visible so you too can learn not to write when on sleeping medication. There rest cans stay in the farmyard.

Dear All

Don’t call me stupid, stupid

• Pravin Gordhan appointed Minister of Finance – 5 days after the obscure Dave Rooyen’s appointment (It’s 10 p.m. on  Sunday evening so this is a bit late and bit rushed).
• The only possible good side is that Zuma responded well to universal criticism from prices and the press and the commentariate.
• The truth is policy is in free-fall and Zuma clearly does not know what he is doing.
• This is a scary time and it would be appropriate to be as cautious as possible

Jacob Zuma has just announced that after ‘careful consideration’ he had decided that he was rescinding the appointment of David Van Rooyen as Minister of Finance and appointing instead, previous Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan. It could be that with the ZAR falling  out of bed, that condemnation of Nhlanhla Nene’s unexplained removal was almost universal and our bond and currency markets were in chaos … whatever it was, it was a deeply embarrassing and  chaotic act redolent of uncertainty and panic.

Even though this is a “good” decision, from Zuma’s perspective it is “clutching” at straws, it looks weak, it look like the centre cannot hold. Expect serious political instability in the palace of power. Zuma must be back against the wall, making a decision that makes him look  so  weak, so foolish.

I will try and deal with this in more detail in the morning.

Nic Borain