South African rand weakens against dollar amid Zuma's no confidence vote

Traders are eyeing up the South African rand intensively today which has ramped up against the dollar so far this week and could surge more if president Jacob Zuma is ousted in today's vote by secret ballot.

Zuma faced a vote by a secret ballot in Tuesday's motion of no confidence in the country's parliament, but at least 50 out of the ANC's 249 MP's would need to vote against the president in order for the motion of no-confidence to pass.

Baleka Mbete, the country's parliament speaker, made the decision to hold the vote in secret on Monday after opposition parties took the case to the Constitutional Court.

It was the belief of opposition parties that MP's from the governing African National Congress would be more likely to vote against the president should their vote be held in secret.

In the past, Zuma had survived repeated revolts against his leadership from within his own party, but none in secret.

Nevertheless, some traders believed the result might be different this time which helped the rand tick up against the dollar this week.

At 14:58 BST, the rand was 13.23 against 1 US dollar, while 1 rand equated 0.08 US dollar.