President Cyril Ramaphosa will announce a new National Executive on Sunday evening at 9PM.
This is according to an announcement by the Presidency and will be in the form of a televised address to the nation.
The new National Executive will constitute the 7th Democratic Administration as a Government of National Unity comprising a diversity of political parties as an outcome of the national and provincial elections held on Wednesday, 29 May 2024.
Done deal: ANC and DA reach agreement
Earlier in the day, news broke that the African National Congress (ANC and Democratic Alliance (DA) have finally reached a deal over their involvement in cabinet.
After weeks of negotiations, leaked letters and public spats, the two parties are believed to have made a breakthrough on Saturday after crisis talks.
Sources close to the negotiations told IOL that talks had collapsed last week due to several leaked letters with both parties accusing each other of negotiating in bad faith, however Saturday’s meeting resurrected the negotiations and hastened a deal.
The sources confirmed that the DA will assume control of six key cabinet positions and ministries as part of the power-sharing arrangement which are:
- Home Affairs
- Basic Education
- Public Works and Infrastructure
- Communications and Digital Technologies
- Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment
- Agriculture
Rand looses gains made
The rand showed some great gains when compared to global currencies on Saturday. The rand strengthened against the dollar and has breached the R17 mark.
The rand was trading around R17.87 against the dollar at 10:20am on Saturday and stayed in that range throughout the entire day.
The ZAR has subsequently lost the gains it made on Saturday and was trading at around R18.19 on Sunday at 4:30pm.
In terms of other global currencies, the rand was trading around R19.52 to the euro and R23.03 to the pound on Sunday.
Political risks and the rand
Casey Sprake, investment analyst at Anchor Capital told IOL Business that the recent volatility in the rand reflects the resurgence of domestic political risks, highlighted by negotiation strife between the ANC and the DA.
“Both the country and financial markets are eagerly awaiting the announcement of the Cabinet for the seventh administration under the newly formed government of national unity,” she said.
“On a month-to-date basis, the rand has lost 1.88% against the dollar, driven by ongoing concerns around the formation of the new presidential cabinet”.
She concluded that this places the rand marginally ahead of Brazil and Mexico who are currently holding the bottom spots on the Emerging Market ladder.
IOL NEWS