South Africa will not unilaterally pay back Zimbabwe’s loan to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as the country ”is not South Africa’s 10th province”, says South Africa’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
Addressing a briefing at Parliament on Wednesday, Dlamini-Zuma said the matter of South Africa’s loan offer to Zimbabwe ”hasn’t moved”, other than that Zimbabwe itself has paid part of its outstanding debt to the IMF.
Initially reticent to comment on the loan — which has seen the official opposition in South Africa running a public campaign against the country lending financial support to its neighbour, saying that this should be referred to the economic cluster of South African ministers — Dlamini-Zuma then went on to say: ”The loan has not been concluded.”
In response to another question, on whether South Africa is considering directly paying the IMF Zimbabwe’s outstanding money, she said Zimbabwe is a sovereign state and South Africa cannot ”unilaterally” pay the IMF on behalf of Zimbabwe without agreement from that state.
It was reported this week that Zimbabwe’s finance and banking officials were heading for Washington to meet the IMF to haggle over the details of the country’s outstanding payments. Zimbabwe has already paid $120-million.
It is understood that Zimbabwe will be expected to pay a further $50-million of about $180-million still outstanding, or face expulsion from the world body on Friday.
South African Treasury officials and the South African Reserve Bank have been in discussion for some time about the details of a financial arrangement with Zimbabwe — but Zimbabwe has been reticent to accept tough conditions to promote political and economic stability in that country. — I-Net Bridge