The rand was a lot weaker on Tuesday morning‚ undermined by weaker global markets and domestic political factors.

“Today’s vote to impeach President Jacob Zuma will almost certainly fail. But efforts to oust the president will continue‚ potentially distracting political attention from SA’s dire economic situation‚” Capital Economics’ Africa economist‚ John Ashbourne‚ said.

The domestic currency has made a big comeback since hitting record lows of nearly R18 to the dollar in mid-January but in the light of current domestic economic challenges it is not clear whether the rand can maintain its recent momentum.

Until now‚ the recovery has been mainly driven by a combination of the Reserve Bank’s decision to rise interest rates by a cumulative 75 basis points this year and exceptionally low global interest rates.

Bidvest Bank chief currency dealer Ion de Vleeschauwer said the potential downgrade of the country’s credit rating posed a danger to the rand’s recovery prospects.

Emerging-market currencies‚ including the Brazilian real and Russian rouble‚ have made impressive recoveries in recent weeks due a weak dollar.

At 8.44am‚ the rand was trading at R14.8582 to the dollar from R14.7851 at Monday’s close. It was at R16.9074 against the euro from R16.8383 previously‚ and at R21.1397 against the pound from R21.0922 previously.

In Asia‚ the Japanese yen continued its upward march against the dollar‚ which weighed on the Nikkei 255. The Japanese currency was nearly 1% weaker at ¥110 to the dollar.