The Industrial development Corporation was involved in negotiations with the World Bank to acquire billions of rands to fund a land reform programme in order to prevent ”a second Zimbabwe” from occurring in South Africa, the Johannesburg daily, Beeld, reported on Thursday.
IDC CEO Khaya Ngqula and financial head Gert Gouws were to have left for Washington on Wednesday evening to continue negotiations at the International Monetary Fund’s annual meeting.
Beeld said Ngqula said at the release of the IDC’s annual report in Johannesburg: ”The World Bank is very amenable to providing money (for land reform) to prevent a similar situation to what is happening now in Zimbabwe from developing in South Africa.”
Talks were at an early, sensitive stage but amounts of R50-billion to R70 billion, to be disbursed over several years, had been mentioned. Ngqula, Gouws and trade and industry minister Alec Erwin last week met World Bank representatives who had mentioned such sums, the newspaper said. – Sapa