Markets spooked by vague South African central bank announcement

Feb 11, 2012, 10:05 GMT

Johannesburg - South Africa's central bank said Saturday it would make an announcement of 'national importance,' along with the country's president and finance minister.

The lack of details about the nature of the announcement had briefly spooked markets, with the rand tumbling by about 2.5 per cent versus the dollar. Traders worried that the central bank of Africa's largest economy was about to make a drastic policy or personnel change while markets were closed.

However, the Mail and Guardian newspaper cited sources as suggesting the announcement would likely be of a celebratory nature and possibly related to former president Nelson Mandela, who was freed from prison on February 11, 1990.

Following reassuring remarks from bank officials, who indicated that the news would not be about interest rates or resignations, the rand made a quick rebound.

Mandela, who has largely disappeared from public life in recent years, was briefly hospitalized in early 2011. He is 93 years old and spends most of his time in Qunu, his ancestral village in the south of the country.

He served 27 years behind bars for his role in the fight against the white-minority Apartheid regime, before leading the country to democracy and becoming the first black president in 1994.