South Africa's Rand Collapses following US Accusations of Supplying Weapons to Russia

The South African rand fell to an all-time low on Friday, after a public accusation by the United States of the African country's involvement in supplying weapons to Russia.

According to the "Financial Times", the African rand fell to 19.46 rand per US dollar, surpassing its record low, which was recorded last April at 19.35 rand to the dollar.

"The rand recovered from its weakest level ever of 19.51 to the dollar hit earlier in the day but set a record closing low of 19.33. It fell 4.7% this week, the largest weekly drop in nine months," according to Reuters.

Yesterday, Robin Brigetti, the US ambassador to South Africa, claimed, during an interview with a local newspaper, that the African country loaded weapons and ammunition on the Russian cargo ship “Lady R” while it was at a naval base near Cape Town.

South Africa has an important trade agreement with Washington called AGOA, which allows the entry of a wide range of South African goods into the United States without customs duties.

Any cessation of that agreement, which includes goods such as cars and oranges, would threaten thousands of jobs in South Africa.

The American accusation comes while South Africa insists on maintaining good relations with Moscow and refraining from any condemnation of it under the grievance of “non-alignment” with any party in the Russian-Western battle.

On its part, South Africa denied officially knowing anything about the incident, stressing that it would open an independent investigation into the matter.

However, South Africa expressed its indignation that the accusation was public and ignored the usual diplomatic channels for resolving such matters.

Also, "Fox News" noted that this may be one of the largest diplomatic spats ever between the United States and South Africa.