As South Africa is not a member of COMESA, participation in this initiative will allow all Rand-based payments to be cleared directly and at a lower cost within the same day. In the longer run, this system will encourage our importers to request their Southern African trade partners to invoice them in Rand rather than US dollars.
6  The political unrest in North Africa and the Middle East is believed to have been triggered by rising food prices, which meant that a growing part of the population was thrown into poverty.