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Johannesburg — IN A dramatic policy shift amid deepening state bankruptcy, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe yesterday pleaded for help to raise $5bn needed to fund the country's economic recovery programme.
Mugabe's pleas for assistance marked an about-turn from his usual defiant tone.
"I, on behalf of the inclusive government and people of Zimbabwe, say, friends of Zimbabwe, please come to our aid," he said at the launch of a new economic recovery plan prepared by the month-old unity government.
He also appealed for the immediate lifting of "inhumane, cruel and unwarranted" sanctions which he said were hurting the economy. But Washington rejected the call, saying the government had "a long way to go" before this could happen.
In the past, Mugabe claimed his government could not go broke as it could always print money. He dismissed international lenders such the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank as "evil" agents of imperialism.
A document released yesterday by the unity government said political reforms demanded by western donors were a crucial part of an emergency recovery plan to ease hyperinflation and wide-spread shortages of food and fuel.
The IMF is in Zimbabwe for consultations but has said that no money would be lent until Zimbabwe paid its arrears of about $89m, which includes both principal debt and interest charges. By December, the amount owing would rise to $480m because of the arrears.
Zimbabwe owes the World Bank $600m and the African Development Bank $429m. Harare also owes the Paris Club of sovereign creditors about $1,1bn.
The government is looking for a $2bn rescue package from the southern African region and another $5bn for the economic recovery programme it launched yesterday. It is in desperate need of $1bn in addition to its budget for emergency financial obligations.
Failure to secure the $1bn could cripple the new government, which has raised public expectations of economic recovery and the delivery of services.
Mugabe's change of attitude appears to have been prompted by government bankruptcy as it can no longer print money to finance its operations, largely because the Zimbabwean dollar has become virtually extinct.
The battered local currency has been replaced by the US dollar and the rand as the means of exchange. Other currencies are also in circulation, making the country a melting pot of base currencies.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti slashed the budget from US$1,9bn to US$1bn on Wednesday.
He appealed to the international community to help, saying it should help secure lines of credit, loans and grants to revive the collapsed economy.
It is understood that to raise money for its economic revival programme the government would sell off public enterprises and other state assets.
The government would also dispose of its equity in state-owned companies and look for funding from foreign investors and donors.
Sources said Biti would be targeting loss-making parastatals for privatisation or partnerships and he would soon propose this to Parliament.
The government had acquired stakes in key sectors of the economy such as agriculture, manufacturing, telecommunications and mining when it still believed in the failed model of command economics.
Loss-making enterprises wholly owned by the government include Air Zimbabwe, National Railways and the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority.
The government also has equity in Wankie Colliery and the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company. With Reuters
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1:Be careful what you say to the people you meet on the way up.....for they will be the very same people you will encounter on the wa down. 2:The birds may fly high in the sky but eventually they have to come down to the ground to feed. If only Mugabe had heeded these wise words of advice handed down the generations and exercised a little restraint when he was making reference to western nations, if only. He now finds himself in the unenviable position where he is having to eat humble pie but on a voluntary basis. when the west tried to assist he told them to go hang. The chinese flew to africa, had a look and realised there was a ready market for their cheap trinkets and they flooded the continent with them, on the back of promises to invest billions....and all africa got was cheap trinkets and nothing else! We will look East the obese ministers bragged and the west shrugged its shoulders and let them look East. Now...who are they turning to for help. is it not the evil west and the ozzies that have just released millions in health aid??? Not the chinese or malaysians where mugabe went and was fawned upon and treated like some national hero only to return home to the very same mess he had left behind.
Again, a lack of intelligence and common sense had led him and his ilk to believe the solution to the mess was to just call the Printers and tell them to fire up the presses and print more worthless zimdollars. problem is people were soon onto this ruse and they stubbornly, or is it wisely, refused to use the discredited zimdollars and preferred the tender of the evil west instead. So the problem of no money did not go away for mugabe cannot get his presses to print US Dollars now can he?? Of course not. Hence his humiliating climbdown and the conciliatory tone to his latest broadcast. gone is the swagger and belligerence and that typified his run of the mill bellicose speeches recited for a gullible uneducated proletariat...only in this instance they were unemployed! But cheer hysterically they did at every denunciation of Blair and Bush for their appreciation of current affairs was gleaned from the pages of the sychophantic Herald which, as a matter of course, would skew its reporting to suit the message spewing out of zanupf HQ. But as the saying goes, You Never Have To Tell The Truth In Politics, It Eventually Comes Out, and in this instance, the truth has come out and the house of cards built by a dictatorial murderer has come crashing down around his ears with a resounding crash. The message is loud and clear. Mugabe and Zanupf have comprehensively failed, falied the country, failed black leaders, failed Africa. All they have succeeded in doing is reinforce the prejudice that African leaders are really not up to successful government!!!
Great post Turnex.
What happened to African solutions to African problems. Sounds like Mugabe is now a begger. First the self professed humiliation of losing power to Tsvangirai who defeated him in the only recognised election and now needed to beg to keep his country alive. Didnt Mbeki say there wasnt a crisis in Zim? What a joke. All these idiots get found out eventually, and eventually are made to look like fools.
Here's a question. How much money do you think Mandela has in his bank versus Mugabe? Mandela was a true stateman who had values. Mugabe is nothing but a theif.
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JB, would you provide personal information on here about yourself? I think not, so dont ask others to do the same.
This post was deleted because it contravenes AllAfrica's commenting guidelines.
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