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South African rand
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South African rand
The South African rand, or simply the rand, (sign: R; code: ZAR) is the official currency of South Africa. It is subdivided into 100 cents (sign: "c"), and a comma separates the rand and cents.
The South African rand is legal tender in the Common Monetary Area member states of Namibia, Lesotho, and Eswatini, with these three countries also having national currencies (the dollar, the loti, and the lilangeni respectively) pegged with the rand at parity and still widely accepted as substitutes. The rand was also legal tender in Botswana until 1976, when the pula replaced the rand at par.
The rand is legal tender in Zimbabwe as part of its multiple currency system, which also includes other currencies, such as the euro, the pound sterling, the US dollar, and the Zimbabwean ZiG.
The rand takes its name from the Witwatersrand ("white waters' ridge" in English, rand being the Afrikaans and Dutch word for 'ridge'), the ridge upon which Johannesburg is built and where most of South Africa's gold deposits were found. In English, Afrikaans and Dutch, the singular and plural forms of the unit ("rand") are the same: one rand, ten rand, and two million rand.
The rand was introduced in the Union of South Africa in 1961, three months before the country declared itself a republic. A Decimal Coinage Commission had been set up in 1956 to consider a move away from the denominations of pounds, shillings, and pence; it submitted its recommendations on 8 August 1958. It replaced the South African pound as legal tender, at the rate of 2 rand to 1 pound, or 10 shillings to the rand. The government introduced a mascot, Decimal Dan, "the rand-cent man" (known in Afrikaans as Daan Desimaal). This was accompanied by a radio jingle to inform the public about the new currency. Although pronounced in the Afrikaans style as /rʌnt/ in the jingles when introduced, the contemporary pronunciation in South African English is /rænd/.
One rand was worth US$1.40 (R0,72 per dollar) from the time of its inception in 1961 until late 1971, and the U.S. dollar became stronger than the South African currency for the first time on 15 March 1982. Its value thereafter fluctuated as various exchange rate dispensations[clarification needed] were implemented by the South African authorities. By the early 1980s, high inflation, mounting political pressure, and sanctions placed against the country due to international opposition to the apartheid system had started to erode its value. The currency broke above parity with the dollar for the first time in March 1982. It continued to trade between R1 and R1,30 to the dollar until June 1984, when the currency's depreciation gained momentum. By February 1985, the currency was trading at over R2 per dollar. In July of that year, authorities suspended all foreign exchange trading for three days in an attempt to halt the currency's depreciation.
By the time that State President P. W. Botha made his Rubicon speech on 15 August 1985, it had weakened to R2,40 per dollar. The currency recovered somewhat between 1986 and 1988, trading near the R2 level usually and breaking beneath it sporadically. The recovery was short-lived; by the end of 1989, the rand was trading at more than R2,50 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 country's future hastened the depreciation until the level of R3 to the dollar was breached in November 1992. A host of local and international events influenced the currency after that, most notably the 1994 general election, which had it weaken to over R3.60 to the dollar; the election of Tito Mboweni as the governor of the South African Reserve Bank; and the inauguration of President Thabo Mbeki in 1999, which had it quickly slide to over R6 to the dollar. The controversial land reform programme that was initiated in Zimbabwe, followed by the September 11 attacks, propelled it to its weakest historical level of R13,84 to the dollar in December 2001.
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South African rand
The South African rand, or simply the rand, (sign: R; code: ZAR) is the official currency of South Africa. It is subdivided into 100 cents (sign: "c"), and a comma separates the rand and cents.
The South African rand is legal tender in the Common Monetary Area member states of Namibia, Lesotho, and Eswatini, with these three countries also having national currencies (the dollar, the loti, and the lilangeni respectively) pegged with the rand at parity and still widely accepted as substitutes. The rand was also legal tender in Botswana until 1976, when the pula replaced the rand at par.
The rand is legal tender in Zimbabwe as part of its multiple currency system, which also includes other currencies, such as the euro, the pound sterling, the US dollar, and the Zimbabwean ZiG.
The rand takes its name from the Witwatersrand ("white waters' ridge" in English, rand being the Afrikaans and Dutch word for 'ridge'), the ridge upon which Johannesburg is built and where most of South Africa's gold deposits were found. In English, Afrikaans and Dutch, the singular and plural forms of the unit ("rand") are the same: one rand, ten rand, and two million rand.
The rand was introduced in the Union of South Africa in 1961, three months before the country declared itself a republic. A Decimal Coinage Commission had been set up in 1956 to consider a move away from the denominations of pounds, shillings, and pence; it submitted its recommendations on 8 August 1958. It replaced the South African pound as legal tender, at the rate of 2 rand to 1 pound, or 10 shillings to the rand. The government introduced a mascot, Decimal Dan, "the rand-cent man" (known in Afrikaans as Daan Desimaal). This was accompanied by a radio jingle to inform the public about the new currency. Although pronounced in the Afrikaans style as /rʌnt/ in the jingles when introduced, the contemporary pronunciation in South African English is /rænd/.
One rand was worth US$1.40 (R0,72 per dollar) from the time of its inception in 1961 until late 1971, and the U.S. dollar became stronger than the South African currency for the first time on 15 March 1982. Its value thereafter fluctuated as various exchange rate dispensations[clarification needed] were implemented by the South African authorities. By the early 1980s, high inflation, mounting political pressure, and sanctions placed against the country due to international opposition to the apartheid system had started to erode its value. The currency broke above parity with the dollar for the first time in March 1982. It continued to trade between R1 and R1,30 to the dollar until June 1984, when the currency's depreciation gained momentum. By February 1985, the currency was trading at over R2 per dollar. In July of that year, authorities suspended all foreign exchange trading for three days in an attempt to halt the currency's depreciation.
By the time that State President P. W. Botha made his Rubicon speech on 15 August 1985, it had weakened to R2,40 per dollar. The currency recovered somewhat between 1986 and 1988, trading near the R2 level usually and breaking beneath it sporadically. The recovery was short-lived; by the end of 1989, the rand was trading at more than R2,50 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 country's future hastened the depreciation until the level of R3 to the dollar was breached in November 1992. A host of local and international events influenced the currency after that, most notably the 1994 general election, which had it weaken to over R3.60 to the dollar; the election of Tito Mboweni as the governor of the South African Reserve Bank; and the inauguration of President Thabo Mbeki in 1999, which had it quickly slide to over R6 to the dollar. The controversial land reform programme that was initiated in Zimbabwe, followed by the September 11 attacks, propelled it to its weakest historical level of R13,84 to the dollar in December 2001.