[Marxism] Comrade Bob's priorities: evict the poor, repay the IMF

[glparramatta <glparramatta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

   Africa
Zimbabwe makes surprise payment to IMF

Harare, Zimbabwe        
01 September 2005 07:33
Zimbabwe has paid back $120-million of its $300-million debt to the
International Monetary Fund (IMF), which had threatened to expel Harare
for arrears, state television said on Wednesday.

"Zimbabwe has managed to pay $120-million to the IMF out of its own
resources as part of efforts aimed at servicing its international debt,"
said a statement read on state television.

"This development is a source of immense national pride as it
demonstrates the country's unwavering commitment to turn around its
economic fortunes," it said.

Minister of Finance Herbert Murerwa said it proves "that no one can
write off Zimbabwe as yet," and that we "can still do things on our own".

Zimbabwe on Thursday acknowledged that the payment does not
automatically avert its threatened expulsion from the IMF.

"We are a guilty party from a technical point of view," Zimbabwe Reserve
Bank Governor Gideon Gono was quoted as saying by the state-run Herald
newspaper on Thursday.

"All we can do is to plead mitigatory circumstances to our arrears
situation and pray that the jury will see for itself how genuine our
efforts at self-correction are."

"After all, at school, students who may not have excelled get effort
badges and are not expelled," he said.

An IMF team is currently in Zimbabwe for key talks that were extended by
two days and ended on Wednesday.

Zimbabwe's powerful neighbour South Africa earlier this month agreed to
step in with a loan to ensure that Harare retains its IMF membership.

Talks held in Pretoria three weeks ago reportedly yielded a tentative
agreement on a loan of between $200-million and $500-million, including
about $100-million to be paid to the IMF.

The news bulletin, however, quoted the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe as
saying the amount paid back "does not nullify or close present
negotiations with South Africa" on a bail-out loan.

Zimbabwe's economy has shrunk by 30% in the past four years following
the seizures in 2000 of about 4 500 white-owned commercial farms, which
sent agricultural production plummeting.

President Robert Mugabe's government has blamed drought and sanctions by
the European Union and the United States for the country's economic
decline, characterised by triple-digit inflation and high unemployment.

Murerwa recently presented a supplementary budget to pay wages, import
food and build new housing, after admitting that targets for economic
growth and inflation would be missed.

Inflation, already hovering at 164,3% in June, shot up to 254,8% in
July, dealing a blow to the government's goal of bringing inflation down
to 80% by year-end.

The government is also spending on housing reconstruction in the wake of
an internationally condemned urban clean-up campaign in which shacks,
market stalls, shops and homes were demolished.

Meanwhile, South African Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana
Dlamini-Zuma on Wednesday warned that an economic meltdown or collapse
of Zimbabwe would not be in the interest of the continent or of humanity.

"We do not want a meltdown in Zimbabwe so that there is a total collapse
... because who has to gain from a total collapse in Zimbabwe?" she told
the South African Parliament in Cape Town.

"None of us, not South Africa, not Zimbabwe, not Africa, not humanity"
want that, she said. -- Sapa-AFP



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