12 May: Did we, or did we not, that is the question.

The mighty ZAR took a proper beating yesterday on the back of the US ambassador saying that South Africa supplied arms to Russia. For obvious reasons, traders took it as a very bad sign and the rand weakened more than 2% on the day.

The real question though is: why is it required for the President of the Republic to have to set up an inquiry to know if we provided arms to Russia? You would expect a quick call down the chain to know yes or no. So who is in control, and why don’t we pick a side?

Interesting to see this morning that the UK is open about supplying arms to Ukraine, at least they know who gave the order. If SA picked a side, SA should stand behind it, not hide behind yet another inquiry.

The not-so-mighty ZAR is now trading weaker than through the COVID crisis in March 2020 and is looking vulnerable this morning.

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