Manual staying on

According to Bloomberg's Nasreen Seria and Mike CohenMinister Trevor Manual is not planning on resigning:

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel won't resign after President Thabo Mbeki was told to quit by the ruling African National Congress.
"The minister is not resigning," his spokeswoman Thoraya Pandy said by phone from Johannesburg yesterday (SUBS SUNDAY). "I spoke to him this morning, and there was no resignation.''

The leadership of the ANC ordered Mbeki to quit, eight days after a High Court judge suggested he pressured prosecutors to pursue corruption charges against ANC leader Jacob Zuma, whom Mbeki fired in 2005. Manuel, 52, has been finance minister since 1996, overseeing the economy's longest expansion on record.

"He's a member of the ANC and will abide by their decisions," Pandy said.
"We assume all employees will remain where they are,'' ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe told reporters in Johannesburg. "We want markets to be sure about where we going. We want to ensure that there's certainty, that's why we've taken this decision.''

Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin will announce any decision he makes on whether he stays through the ANC, his spokeswoman Vimla Maistry said. Erwin, who was first appointed Trade Minister in former president Nelson Mandela's cabinet in 1994, backed Mbeki in his failed bid to be re-elected leader of the ANC in December.

"The critical question for the economy is whether there will be policy continuity," Goolam Ballim, chief economist at Standard Bank, said in an interview from Johannesburg late on Saturday. "The day-to-day governing of South Africa could enter a stage of inertia which would have an immediate impact on financial markets.''

"The rand may come under pressure because of the increased uncertainty," Garth Mackenzie, the head of derivatives trading at BoE Stockbrokers, said. "The currency and bond markets will react the strongest."

Moneyweb