| President
Mbeki appointed a commission of enquiry, headed by Labour Court Chief Advocate Myberg, to
look into event surrounding the steep decline in the Rand during 2001. Such an enquiry had
not been even whispered about in public places before the SA Chamber of Business called
for one through the media last weekend. Given the speed of the response, government is
clearly quite happy to go along with the idea, and the Rand has strengthened by 5% since
the end of last week. This was not entirely due to the prospects of there being an enquiry
- other announcements (also related to government affairs) also played a part. Just what
the commission will uncover is completely open to speculation at present, but the general
gist of comments made so far by SACOB indicate that a few players in the forex and Rand
assets markets could get their names tarnished. Sticks and stones may dent their image,
but not necessary their bottom lines. Kevin Wakeford, CEO of the SA Chamber of Business
(SACOB) either knows something which non of us mortals can fathom, or else he is a very
brave man. Looking at his comments regarding the abuse of the foreign exchange market of
the Rand by certain alleged players, from virtually any angle one cares to adopt to take a
prospective, it seems that any perpetrators of dirty work on the forex market would come
from within the members of SACOB itself. |
SACOB membership is made up by various geographic chambers,
usually defined by cities, which are themselves made up by business enterprises. Somewhere
in that pyramid, Wakeford is likely to find the organisations which he is likely to
compromise if his suspicions are made public. In the politics of business, just like in
party politics, that could be a career-limiting move on his part. Doubtless, he has the
support of his various committees. They are brave, too. Viewed from a moderate distance,
there is a fairly strong resemblances between the call by SA Chamber of Business executive
Kevin Wakeford for a commission of enquiry into the Rand, and the tactics often employed
by Patricia De Lilli of the PAC. To spur government into action, they both have said that
they have strong evidence of impropriety on the part of individuals and/or institutions,
but have refused to reveal any of the information before obtaining their desired
institutionalised outcome. So far, it would appear that senior members of the ANC are
taking the bate offered by Wakeford and SACOB, with a relatively quick and positive
response to his requests conveyed through the media. It offers a way of demonstrating the
concern of the authorities, without necessarily climbing into the situations with policy
measures, like interest rate hikes and additional forex controls. A very convenient
expedient, indeed |
