At 1505 GMT, the rand traded at 14.8950 against the dollar, 0.96% firmer than its previous close.
The rand slipped to a more than five-week low of 15.2500 this week as COVID-19 concerns, wobbles in China's growth and a Washington gridlock ahead of a looming deadline to lift the U.S. government's borrowing limit, lent support to the dollar which is seen as a safe-haven asset.
The dollar during the week was also bolstered by a surge in U.S. Treasury yields on growing expectations that the Federal Reserve will taper its asset purchases by year-end and hike rates in 2022.
"Some of the (rand) weakness comes from the inverse relationship between emerging market currencies and the stronger dollar," said Bianca Botes, director at Citadel Global.
"However, other structural issues weighing on the rand include the sustained sell-off of local bonds by foreign participants, and the softening of industrial commodity prices as the global economic recovery loses steam."
Recent domestic data has been better than predicted and the economy performed strongly in the first half of the year. Still, the central bank said last week that it thought the bounce-back from the COVID-19 pandemic was mostly done.
Data on Friday showed South African manufacturing activity improved in September but at a slower pace than August.
Government bonds were little changed, with the yield on the 2030 instrument down 0.5 basis points to 9.22%.
Stocks fell tracking moves in global shares.[MKTS/GLOB]
The Top-40 index closed 1.03% lower at 57,265.62 while the broader all-share was down 0.97% to 63,661.02.
(Reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo; Editing by Amy Caren Daniel)
