The Rand is the legal tender and official currency of South Africa. The Rand was introduced in 1961 with the establishment of the Republic of South Africa, supplanting the South African Pound as legal tender at a rate of 2 Rand per Pound. One Rand can be divided into 100 cents.
The Rand is available in banknotes of 10, 20, 50, 100, and 200 Rand denominations. It is also available in 9 coins in 1c, 2c, 5c, 10c, 20c, 50c, R1, R2, and R5 denominations.
Brief exchange rate history
A rand was worth more than a U.S. dollar from the time of its inception in 1961 until 1982, when mounting political pressure combined with sanctions placed against the country because of apartheid started to erode its value. The currency broke above parity with the dollar for the first time in March 1982, and continued to trade between R 1–R 1.30 to the dollar until June 1984, when depreciation of the currency gained momentum. By February 1985, it was trading at over R 2 per dollar, and in July that year all foreign exchange trading was suspended for 3 days to try to stop the devaluation.
By the time that State President PW Botha made his notorious Rubicon speech on 15 August 1985, it had weakened to R 2.40 per dollar. The currency recovered somewhat between 1986–88, trading near the R 2 level most of the time and even breaking beneath it sporadically. The recovery was short-lived however, and by the end of 1989 the rand was trading at levels of more than R 2.50 per dollar.
As it became clear in the early 1990s that the country was destined for black majority rule and one reform after the other was announced, uncertainty about the future of the country hastened the depreciation until the level of R 3 to the dollar was breached in November 1992. A host of local and international events influenced the currency after that, most notably the 1994 democratic election which saw it weaken to over R 3.60 to the dollar, the election of Tito Mboweni as the new governor of the South African Reserve Bank, and the inauguration of President Thabo Mbeki in 1999 which saw it quickly slide to over R 6 to the dollar. The controversial land reform program that was kicked off in Zimbabwe, followed by the September 11, 2001 attacks, propelled it to its weakest historical level of R 13.84 to the dollar in December 2001.
This sudden depreciation in 2001 led to a formal investigation, which in turn led to a dramatic recovery. By the end of 2002, the currency was trading at under R 9 to the dollar again, and by the end of 2004 was trading at under R 5.70 to the dollar. The currency softened somewhat in 2005, and was trading at around R 6.35 to the dollar at the end of the year. At the start of 2006 however, the currency resumed its rally, and, as of 19 January 2006, was trading at under R 6 to the dollar again. However, during the second and third quarters of 2006 (ie April through September), the Rand weakened significantly. In Sterling terms, it fell from around 9.5p to just over 7p, losing some 25% of its international trade-weighted value in just six months. Late in 2007, the Rand rallied modestly to just over 8p, only to experience a precipitous slide during the first quarter of 2008.
This downward slide could be attributed to a range of factors: South Africa's worsening current account deficit, which widened to a 36-year high of 7.3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2007; inflation at a five-year high of just under 9%; escalating global risk aversion as investors' concerns over the spreading impact of the sub-prime crisis grew; and a general flight to "safe havens", away from the perceived risks of emerging markets. The Rand depreciation was exacerbated by the Eskom electricity crisis, which arose from the utility being unable to meet the country's rapidly growing energy demands. In particular, major mines were shut down, with Eskom warning that major new industrial projects could not be powered until additional power generation capacity could be brought on stream - something unlikely to be achieved for at least another 5 years. This would have a significant impact on production and exports by South Africa's mining industry, and would thus worsen an already worrisome current account deficit. It is particularly unfortunate that this should have happened at a time of record high prices for hard and soft commodities.
