--- title: "While you were sleeping: 31 March 2017" description: "Zuma sacks Gordhan, enacts his own night of the long knives. Rand plummets, and the country begins to react." type: "NewsArticle" publisher: "Daily Maverick" site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za" section: "Newsdeck" author: "John Stupart" author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/johnstupart/" canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-03-31-while-you-were-sleeping-31-march-2017/" published: "2017-03-31T06:01:39" lang: "en-ZA" word_count: 685 --- # While you were sleeping: 31 March 2017 > Zuma sacks Gordhan, enacts his own night of the long knives. Rand plummets, and the country begins to react. By John Stupart · Published 31 March 2017, 08:01 SAST ## Content **TGIF, 31 March 2017** *"Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."* **John Lennon** ![Image](https://i2.createsend1.com/ei/d/97/E8F/F7D/csimport/849x493q70Trainspotter-War1.051845.jpg) STORY OF THE DAY [TRAINSPOTTER: WAR](http://email.touchbasepro.com/t/d-l-hktltyk-l-k/) By RICHARD POPLAK The Zuma Presidency has ended. The Zuma dictatorship has begun. His surprise not-surprise Cabinet reshuffle, which ousted Pravin Gordhan and his deputy Mcebisi Jonas from the Finance Ministry, has already tanked the rand. But it’s going to get much, much worse. And so this enormous act of disrespect was also a declaration of war, and on Friday, South Africans wake up to a worse version of their old country. The time has come to fight for a new one. [Zuma axes ministers in the dead of night](http://email.touchbasepro.com/t/d-l-hktltyk-l-u/) It came at midnight. A cowardly time to enact major government change, but for President Jacob Zuma, perhaps the perfect time. Minister Pravin Gordhan was sacked, with a replacement toadie well entrenched in his stead. If South Africans were looking for "that moment" when the country descended into a dictatorship, this was a pretty good moment. [The butcher's bill](http://email.touchbasepro.com/t/d-l-hktltyk-l-o/) In the end Malusi Gigaba was made Gordhan's replacement-puppet. Nobody really saw it coming, but the shift also replaced Gordhan's deputy Mcebisi Jonas with Sfiso Buthelezi. The official reasoning of Zuma's reshuffle was to “improve efficiency and effectiveness”. If the aim is improve the efficiency by which the state coffers can be looted, jolly good then. [The reaction](http://email.touchbasepro.com/t/d-l-hktltyk-l-b/) Not all were asleep at such a ridiculous time, however. Reaction to Zuma's overtures at entrenching his domain was swift, and it was scathing. Save South Africa, among others, were not content to wait until interns woke up in the morning to write a response. They called for South Africans to "act now". More specifically, a march. Today. At 10am in Pretoria's Church Square. If you're around and about, your tea break can wait for once. [The cost. Literally.](http://email.touchbasepro.com/t/d-l-hktltyk-l-n/) The rand tanked predictably. Hovering under R13 to the dollar before the Zuma Overture began, the currency plummeted to a disturbing R13.42 by the morning. When markets open again on Friday, expect all gains made by Gordhan and his ministry to be erased completely. Anyone planning on shorting the rand could not have orchestrated the plummet better. — IN NUMBERS 13.42 The cost of a dollar, as of 6am, SAST. FACTS OF THE DAY Today in 1989 the**Eiffel Tower**wasopened. The **measurement "lbs"**derives from the latin “libra poundo”. 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