Faced with D-day on September 23 when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) may expel Zimbabwe, the government put on a brave front, claiming that because South Africa and the IMF had approached it to take a loan, Harare would not accede to political conditions attached to the bail-out.
South Africa and the IMF could only negotiate factors such as interest rates and the balance of payments and could not insist on political negotiations, said Zanu-PF ministers who this week met an IMF inspection team in the country.
Zimbabwe’s Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told Parliament on Wednesday that his government would ”never succumb” to political conditions. ”Nothing has been agreed to so far [with South Africa],” Chinamasa said. ”They are tripping over each other to offer us assistance.”
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) shadow finance secretary Tendayi Biti insisted, however, ”It’s not a commercial loan. A commercial loan is given to someone with a capacity for repayment, but our supply side is dead. It’s a donation and South Africa should insist on political conditions.”
The parliamentary spat played out at a time when the IMF is holding a series of meetings with the government, private sector and the opposition.
They were told that inflation, currently at 255%, would surge to 400% by year-end; the fuel crisis is biting; foreign currency is in short supply; and, to compound matters, manufacturing and agriculture is shrinking.
As the IMF delegation prepares a report for their Board of Governors meeting on September 9, the constitutional amendment Bill debated in Parliament on Tuesday also would have alarmed them. Among others, it seeks to bar legal challenges to the acquisition of farms by the state and restrict the granting of travel visas by the Home Affairs office. The Bill is being viewed as a ”punitive measure” to bar opposition activists from lobbying abroad.
”It’s a terrible signal to the IMF,” said John Robertson, an economic consultant, who met the visiting delegation on Monday.
”They will and should be concerned. Nobody can have confidence to invest in a country where the government is planning political moves to nationalise land. They are taking away from prospective investors the prospect of being in control of their investments,” he said.
Chinamasa asserted: ”What Zimbabweans need to know is that you cannot travel on a Zimbabwean passport to go outside in order to destroy your country, campaigning for the imposition of sanctions [and] isolation of Zimbabwe. Not on a Zimbabwean passport. When you do such activities you are basically saying you are not interested in Zimbabwean citizenship.”
MDC leader Morgan Tsvan-girai on Tuesday urg-ed the IMF not to expel the country for non-payment of its $295-million debt. ”I am against expulsion because the implications will be disastrous for Zimbabwe, no one will do business with us. We will be under siege from creditors … creditors will call up their loans and the country will virtually collapse.”
Speaking to ZimOnline, Tsvangirai also called on the United Nations to intervene. He said President Thabo Mbeki has tirelessly worked to bring Zimbabwe’s feuding political parties to the table but had reached the limit of what he could do.