OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Tuesday
SOUTH African and Zimbabwean government ministers have held talks in Pretoria aimed at tackling the “very deep economic crisis” in Zimbabwe, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Monday.
Manuel said the two days of discussions were not just a token gesture.
“It is not narrowly assisting [Zimbabwe], it is not putting hand in pocket and saying here is some small change, get on with it,” Manuel told SABC public radio.
He described the talks, which brought together nine ministers, as “not a cataclysmic event but a general sharing of information” through which Pretoria aimed to help its neighbour overcome its “multi-faceted” economic crisis.
The ministerial meeting was meant to lay the groundwork for a meeting between the two countries’ presidents, Thabo Mbeki and Robert Mugabe, at an undisclosed date.
Mbeki has been criticised at home and to a lesser extent abroad for his relations with his controversial Zimbabwean counterpart.
Manuel said South Africa needed to help because economic problems in Zimbabwe could impact on every South African.
“An implosion there could impact on every man, woman and child in South Africa,” he said.
He told journalists in Pretoria: “Of course we are very concerned about the situation in Zimbabwe,” but said South Africa did not believe it would solve problems “by screaming at our neighbours.”
Zimbabwean Finance Minister Simba Makoni told reporters after the meeting: We have nothing to hide about what is happening in Zimbabwe.
Makoni invited “perturbed neighbours, partners and comrades” in South Africa to come and see for themselves what was happening in his country.
“Those partners in the media” did not always convey the true facts about the situation in Zimbabwe, he said.
People in South Africa who feared a “contagion effect” from Zimbabwe should come and feel, see and hear the country for themselves and talk to whomever they wanted.
Then they could see for themselves what challenges the country faced and what motivated Zimbabwean war veterans to spend nine to 12 months in leaking shacks on farms.
However, people should not believe that when they visited Victoria Falls, gangs of war veterans would stop them.
The South African Minister for Minerals and Energy Affairs, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, said Zimbabwe’s state electricity provider Zesa had paid R62m ($7.9m) of its debt to its South African counterpart Eskom.
She said more outstanding debt – which she did not quantify – would soon be paid into Eskom’s account in Harare.- AFP
ZA*NOW:
Bob battles to grasp rule of law March 19, 2001
Intervention body worried about Zim March 16, 2001
Zim minister bellows at ‘racist’ UK March 15, 2001
Now Mugabe cracks down on the clergy March 11, 2001
Mugabes war on opposition not over March 5, 2001
Bitter stand-off looms in Zimbabwe March 1, 2001
World wags warning finger at defiant Zim February 19, 2001
Mugabe government plumbs new depths February 18, 2000