Zimbabwe bailout will not go down drain - Dlamini-Zuma
March 1, 2009
By Donwald Pressly
There was little risk that the monies being sought to bail out Zimbabwe would be wasted, South African foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Friday.
She added that Southern African Development Community (SADC) members were looking at bilateral aid, during a media conference after a SADC council of ministers' meeting in Cape Town during which the spotlight fell on resolving the immediate problems faced by Zimbabwe's unity government.
Dlamini-Zuma said that an extraordinary summit of the group's 15 heads of state and government was planned to underpin the region's support of the new government.
It would underscore the work of the regional finance ministers who were considering ways of channelling assistance to Zimbabwe.
Dlamini-Zuma was uncharacteristically candid about Zimbabwe's troubled position.
Zimbabwe's delegation had detailed the short-term budgetary requirements for its economic recovery programme.
"[They] noted the unprecedented levels of hyperinflation and the loss of value of the currency resulting in the use of multiple currencies; sustained periods of negative gross domestic product growth rates; low productive capacity and severe de-industrialisation; collapse of social services, food shortages and high levels of poverty; and general public despondency," said the foreign minister.
The delegation included finance minister Tendai Biti, from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's faction of the Movement for Democratic Change, and foreign minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, from President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF.
While Mumbengegwi declined to comment, Dlamini-Zuma confirmed that the delegation had asked for R20 billion - far short of the R50 billion originally mentioned by Tsvangirai in talks with President Kgalema Motlanthe 10 days ago.
Flanked by SADC secretary-general Tomaz Salomao, she said the regional ministers for finance and investment undertook to pursue measures in support of Zimbabwe's economic recovery programme, "namely, collectively engaging bilateral and multilateral donors through SADC and the African Union; facilitating the normalisation of the status of Zimbabwe at the International Monetary Fund; and the lifting of sanctions, both political and financial, within the spirit of the global political agreement".
Asked whether she trusted that foreign aid would be appropriately spent after a recent injection by South Africa of R300 million had disappeared into the ether, she said: "We do think that when we give them money … the government will use the money properly … for what it is meant for. There's a government there."
South African treasury spokesperson Solanga Mbunyuza said the discussions about assistance to Zimbabwe were a work-in-progress and could not confirm whether any aid would be a loan or a grant.
Meanwhile, Basildon Peta reported that Zimbabwe's main farming bodies had been flooded with calls for help from farmers being evicted by Mugabe's militants, who were allegedly on a final push to steal the wealth of the few remaining white farmers before the new unity government takes hold.
The Commercial Farmers' Union and Justice for Agriculture said more than 100 farmers had been targeted and their crops worth nearly R1 billion were under threat.
|
|
