When the Rand was introduced in 1961, its value was fixed at R2 to the pound. Coming off the strong base of the South African Pound, back then one Rand could buy US$1.40. It re-mained at roughly that level until the early 1980’s, when mounting political pressure combined with sanctions placed against the country due to apartheid started to erode the Rand’s value.

The currency broke above parity with the dollar for the first time in March 1982, and by the time that State President PW Botha made his Rubicon speech on 15 August 1985, it had weakened to R2.40 per dollar. The currency recovered somewhat between 1986–88, trading near the R 2 level most of the time and even breaking beneath it sporadically.

 The recovery was short-lived however, and by the end of 1989 the rand was trading at levels of more than R 2.50 per dollar.

The rand/dollar exchange rate in the post-apartheid South Africa had been largely impacted by national and international social, political and economic events, remaining in decline and recently hitting a new low of almost R18 against the US dollar.

Despite its seemingly ever weakening value, the beleaguered Rand remains an important emerging market currency. The latest triennial survey undertaken by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) showed the Rand to be the 18th most traded currency in the world, representing 1.1% of the world’s currency market.