SW Radio Africa (London)
Lance Guma
6 July 2009
Finance Minister Tendai Biti's office has denied reports that he contradicted Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's announcement of a US$950 million credit line from China.
On Friday several news agencies quoted Biti telling a press conference that the country had not received a single cent from the Chinese. 'There's no foundation at all in reports that we have received US$950 million from China,' the weekly Zimbabwe Standard newspaper quoted him as saying. This was in sharp contrast to Tsvangirai's announcement last week Tuesday in which he said; 'While I was away government, through Finance Minister Tendai Biti, also secured lines of credit from China totaling US$950 million.'
On Monday Newsreel was told that Biti used his Friday press conference to deny reports he had signed a much bigger US$5 billion deal with the Chinese, which would have seen the mortgaging off of the country's platinum resources. An official in Biti's office told us it was only when the Finance Minister was responding to a question on the US$950 million deal, that he clarified that this was not hard cash, but credit lines.
Muddying the waters even further are claims from Mugabe that the deal with the Chinese was negotiated long before the unity government was formed. Mugabe insisted it was a US$5 billion deal that would be made available to them in tranches. He went on to cite the US$950 million as one such tranche.
Newsreel spoke to a journalist who attended last week's press conference and he said he found it strange that Biti's office would deny something that the minister had said openly. We are also told Biti confirmed claims by Mugabe that the application for US$950 million was made in 2005, way before the unity government was formed. The Chinese government, through the Eximbank of China, this year requested that Zimbabwe re-activate the application they made back then.
Another source told Newsreel Tsvangirai probably jumped the gun in announcing the deal, which is still to be finalized. Prime Minister Tsvangirai meanwhile is said to have met the Chinese ambassador in Harare and the finer details of the deal are being finalized. An MDC official told us the deal would almost certainly go through.
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