Johannesburg - Southern African leaders will hold yet
another summit on Zimbabwe, this time to discuss the new government's
request for 2 billion dollars in aid, South Africa's foreign affairs
minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said Friday.
Reporting back on a meeting of Southern African Development
Community (SADC) ministers in Cape Town, Dlamini-Zuma said the
finance ministers from the 15-nation bloc had drawn up a
'regionally-supported' economic recovery programme for cash-strapped
Zimbabwe.
The ministers would be engaging bilateral and multilateral donors
on Zimbabwe's behalf, pushing for the lifting of targeted European
Union and US sanctions and 'facilitating the normalization of the
status of Zimbabwe at the International Monetary Fund,' she said.
They would also be convening another extraordinary summit of SADC
heads of state and government 'to consider the financing proposals
submitted by Zimbabwe.'
Zimbabwe's new finance minister, Tendai Biti, this week told his
SADC counterparts the new coalition government needed 2 billion
dollars over the next 10 months - 1 billion dollars in the form of a
loan to stimulate business activity, and another 1 billion dollars to
end emergencies in health, education, sanitation, energy, water
provision and other services.
Ten years of ruinous policies under President Robert Mugabe have
wrecked Zimbabwe's economy. The breakdown of basic infrastructure has
sparked a cholera epidemic that has claimed close to 4,000 lives and
continues to spread.
While the African Development Bank has been listed as a likely
source of funding for Zimbabwe, ADB president Donald Kaberuka, who
has been attending the Cape Town meetings, said Zimbabwe would have
to clear its debts first.
The country has run up 5 billion dollars in debt, including 460
million dollars it owes to the ADB. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
says he needs up to 5 billion dollars to rebuild the country in the
medium to long term.
Western donors have been reluctant to pledge funds before getting
assurances that the two-week-old government that is headed by Mugabe
is genuinely committed to reform.
The Movement for Democratic Change is incensed at the state's
refusal to release over 30 MDC members and human rights activists
being held mostly on what it calls 'trumped-up' charges of plotting
against Mugabe.
The party is also refusing to recognize Mugabe's unilateral
appointment this week of several permanent secretaries.
USA
Your Talkback on this Story