The South African rand (ZAR) saw sharp declines against the dollar on Friday after a new variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus was detected in the country. Zar fell below 16.00 to the dollar for the first time this year just one day after Thanksgiving, dropping to as low as 16.2391 against the dollar during Asia trading hours on Friday. The South African rand was last trading at 16.1748. Stock declines were led by a sharp drop in hospitality shares after a string of countries including Britain announced they were temporarily restricting travel to South Africa and its neighbors, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, and Eswatini. The fall comes shortly after the country’s health minister, Joe Phaahla, announced Thursday that a new variant of the COVID-19 virus has been detected in the country. Scientists are concerned about the new variant because it has a high number of mutations and spreads rapidly among young people in Gauteng, the country’s most populous province, Phaahla …