Rand Manipulation Case Against Local Banks Collapses - The Common Sense

Theory Briefing

• A nearly decade-long prosecution by South Africa's competition regulator has ended in collapse, with an unknown sum of taxpayer money spent.
• The case centred on alleged conspiracy among local banks to manipulate the rand, a charge the article frames as a 'conspiracy theory' from the start.
• The failed prosecution raises hard questions about how regulators decide which cases are worth pursuing at public expense.
• When institutions invest years and resources into a theory, abandoning it becomes costly — making it harder to call off even a weakening case.