JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's President Jacob Zuma said markets overreacted to his decision to sack Nhlanhla Nene as finance minister in December.
The president last month changed finance ministers twice in a week, sending the rand plummeting, alarming investors and triggering financial turmoil.
"It was an overreaction, really, from my point of view," Zuma told SABC television in an interview aired on Sunday.
The rand rapidly weakened by more than 5 percent after Zuma appointed the relatively unknown and untested David van Rooyen to succeed Nene.
"People didn't understand what was happening, and they exaggerated the issue," he said in another interview aired by ENCA on Sunday.
"The rand, for an example, had been going down when Nene was there. It had been going down for months and months. It was not triggered by the decision," Zuma told SABC.
But Zuma in December bowed to pressure within days and appointed Pravin Gordhan, who held the job from 2009 until 2014, to replace Van Rooyen as finance minister.
The rand has since continued its slide, reaching a new record low on Friday as investors sell out of emerging market assets on worries about a slowdown in China.