The Financial Rand was an awkward kludge. Dreamed up by the dreary dictators of Apartheid, it was designed to prevent South Africans from taking their money out of the country. If you wanted to exchange your rand for dollars you first had to buy financial rand. Which were worth nothing.
When the financial rand went, in 1995, the new ANC government was fearful of currency instability. High interest rates of over 20% and severe limitations on exchange control held capital flight in check. Wags worried, with the rand drifting to R5 to the greenback, that South Africa would soon be the 7/11 economy; R7 to the dollar, R11 to the pound.





