The day has come for those travellers who always felt that they were losing some valuable time because of all the currency conversions before buying overseas. There is an amazing range of reasons people give to explain the demise of the rand. A global financial bias towards 'security', with no domestic policy steps whatsoever to temporarily prop up the rand's value. In times like these, the first world is regarded as the safest haven, notwithstanding its own scars. Even more so this time around, as the events of the last month triggered a massive increase in 'free-world security' in the broadest possible sense.
Clever money understands it.
Just be very aware not to become 'anti-rand' paranoiac because of recent movements in currency markets. Overreactions in markets tend to correct themselves when emotions stabilise, and as demonstrated by the movement in stock markets in the last two weeks, it remains totally impossible to predict these corrections over the short term. Acting on such predictions can be very expensive. Remember, a sound strategy is one that allows you ample following distance in volatile times, whatever the volatility implies. All indications still point towards remarkable flexibility in domestic price making, which prevents higher import prices to fully filter through to consumer level.