South Africa's Zuma says sacking of minister not behind crash in rand

An exodus of Japanese investors triggered a 'flash crash' in the South African rand on Monday, analysts said.

At one point in the session, the rand fell 9% - the most since October 2008 - to 17.9169 per US dollar, but as of 10:00 GMT was trading at 16.508.

“A combination of stops and margin calls caused mass capitulation” by Japanese retail investors were likely behind the crash in the rand, analysts at Macquarie Bank said in a research note sent to clients.

Like many emerging markets, South Africa, which was widely considered to be the most developed of Africa's economies, had been left reeling from falling commodity prices, slowing growth, and a weakening currency.

Matter were made worse in December 2015 after president Jacob Zuma unexpectedly fired his finance minister Nhlanhla Nene.

On Monday, Zuma revisited the subject, dismissing the possibility that his sacking of Nene had undermined the credibility of the country's economic policies.

“The rand had been going down when Nene was there, it had been going down for months and months. It was not triggered by the decision.

"I think people did not understand, I think that there was an exaggeration in terms of the reaction, there is no single person that can collapse a department, particularly a department like the Treasury," Zuma told local broadcaster eNCA in an interview.

"There was an overreaction to the decision. It’s not like breaking the economy.”

China is South Africa's largest market for exports, accounting for 37% of its shipments overseas.