Western donors and foreign investors are cautious - Helping Zimbabwe
February 28th, 2009
A girl eats outside her home in the suburb of Epworth in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare on Wednesday. The new unity government will rely heavily on donors to rescue the ruined economy where inflation is out of control. Photo/REUTERS
CAPE TOWN, Friday
Southern African finance ministers agreed on Friday to push for donor help to rebuild Zimbabwe from economic collapse, and put the initial need at $2 billion, South Africa’s foreign minister said.
Zimbabwe’s new unity government of old rivals President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is heavily reliant on donors to revive the country, which is suffering hyperinflation, food shortages and 90 per cent unemployment.
South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said the finance ministers would try to normalise Zimbabwe’s status in the International Monetary Fund, and regional bloc SADC plans a summit to consider financing proposals presented by Zimbabwe.
Economic recovery
“The ministers responsible 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,” she said after the meeting of ministers from SADC, the Southern African Development Community.
Western donors and foreign investors are cautious, however, and want to see concrete signs that a democratic government is created and economic reforms implemented before money will flow to the once relatively prosperous country.
“Of course we think the money will be used properly, there is a government there and the minister of finance seems to be in charge of the issues,” Dlamini-Zuma told reporters.
Zimbabwe’s new finance minister, Tendai Biti, is from Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change but control of economic policy is a point of friction between the two camps in the government.
The prime minister has said Zimbabwe needs $5 billion to recover from years of decline, but Western countries are still waiting to see if the new government will bring about real change.
In Harare, Mugabe dismissed as “nonsense” Western demands that he free up Zimbabwe’s media in order to get sanctions lifted.
Mugabe, who turned 85 last week and will officially celebrate his birthday at a huge rally on Saturday, said his government wanted friendly relations with all nations and was still assessing new US President Barack Obama’s policies. “We are open. We want to discuss. We have never closed our doors,” he said.
Zimbabwe’s economy is collapsing, and hospitals and clinics have been unable to contain one of the continent’s worst ever cholera epidemics.
The World Health Organisation said on Friday 3,894 people had died from 84,027 reported cases of the disease since August last year.
WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told reporters in Geneva an inter-agency UN team that carried out an evaluation in Zimbabwe had found the humanitarian crisis remained “grave”, with clean water lacking, sewer systems blocked, and refuse uncollected in many areas.
source.nation.ke