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South Africa’s rand slightly recovered against the dollar on Wednesday after crumbling on Tuesday as markets responded negatively to the outcome of the impeachment of President Jacob Zuma.
 
Last week, South Africa’s Constitutional Court had ruled that President Zuma breached the constitution by refusing to repay some of the $16 million in public funds spent on upgrading his private home in rural Nkandla. The court ordered the President to reimburse the state for some of the upgrades.

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) defeated an opposition-sponsored motion to remove Zuma from office. The ANC, which controls two-thirds of parliament, said the president was not guilty of serious misconduct.

Following the vote, the rand dropped to 15.1325 per dollar as at 16.51 GMT on Tuesday but has recovered to 15.04997 against the dollar as of 07.31 GMT on Wednesday.

The rand has been under pressure due to lower commodity prices, weak economic growth, the slowdown in China, and the rate increase in the United States. The rand depreciated by 25 percent against the dollar last year, dropping by over 5 percent against the dollar in December after President Jacob Zuma appointed two finance ministers in less than one week.

"The rand is the worst performing [Emerging Markets] currency, local factors are driving that additional weakness," ETM Analytics market analyst Ricardo Da Camara told Reuters. "A key factor for the weakness has been the dismal [Purchasing Managers’ Index] data."

In its quarterly Monetary Policy Review released on Monday, the South African Reserve Bank warned that the rand was likely to depreciate against major currencies if its sovereign credit rating is downgraded by ratings agencies. Standard & Poor’s and Fitch, have placed South Africa’s debt one level above junk status while Moody’s placed the country’s debt two levels above junk, but on review for downgrade.