Zuma's defining moments for the economy.

Picture: Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters

JOHANNESBURG - Former president Jacob Zuma’s ruinous leadership led to many unpopular decisions that plunged South Africa into a series of crises and led to the continental superpower’s credit rating downgraded to junk status.

When Zuma took over as president in May 2009, the economy was fairly stable with the rand trading at R8 levels to the US dollar. But that sentiment on Africa’s largest and most diversified economy quickly changed when Zuma would “irrationally” reshuffle his cabinet, in some cases appointing little-known ANC backbenchers to critical posts such as the finance ministry, unsettling the markets and sending the local currency on a downward spiral.

Zuma presided over an unprecedented unemployment rate of 27.7 percent, which recently went down 26.7 percent. And while South Africa’s business confidence index averaged 100 index points in 2015, it went down before improving 3.3 index points to the current 99.7 percent, moving closer to levels last seen before Zuma unceremoniously fired Nhlanhla Nene as finance minister in December 2015 and replacing him with Des van Rooyen. This decision was a defining moment of Zuma’s administration as it wiped at least R170 billion off the stock market and plunged the rand to lows of R15.38/$.

Full story at IOL.

By Luyolo Mkentane.