Cape Town — Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said Friday that rebuilding his shattered country would require an international aid package of up to five billion U.S. dollars.
Addressing a news conference in Cape Town after talks with South Africa’s President Kgalema Motlanthe, Tsvangirai also signalled that he would not allow a dispute over detained opposition activists to derail efforts to secure immediate emergency assistance.
“We are working slowly to deal with [detentions]… and to make sure that it doesn’t become the [focus of] attention. The real [focus]… is the plight of Zimbabweans,” he said.
Tsvangirai flew to Cape Town to appeal for help in meeting basic, short-term needs – as basic, according to a high-level South African source, as drugs for clinics and hospitals and money to pay for last year’s school examination papers to be marked.
The new prime minister said he was appealing for help from member countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) because they had guaranteed the agreement reached last September which laid the basis for the unity government.
“Starting with SADC, there must be a demonstrable show of confidence… No one is going to show confidence in the new government unless the region itself feels confident that this a process that they are able to back,” Tsvangirai told journalists.
Although a South African newspaper report suggested in advance of the meeting that Tsvangirai would ask South Africa for one billion U.S. dollars, Motlanthe asserted that “there are no figures to speak of – those are going to be crunched by the technical people by the end of next week.”
But, he added, “we’ve got to respond positively so that when we ask others to come to the party it should be that we ourselves are giving the lead.”
Tsvangirai said the unity government’s key priorities were to reopen schools, to get clinics and hospitals operating again and to feed Zimbabweans.
“As for the medium- to long-term economic recovery programme, it has not been assessed at this time how much is needed but I think it will run into billions of dollars – maybe as high as five billion dollars.
“But… what we are looking for [now] is a short-term intervention to make sure that at least we are jump-starting those facilities or those sections that affect the people.”
Asked about the plight of opposition activists – including abducted human rights campaigner Jestina Mukoko and prospective government minister Roy Bennett – who remained in detention, Tsvangirai said he, President Robert Mugabe and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara all agreed that the detainees should have the opportunity to be bailed out of prison.
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“I am sure that those detainees and Roy Bennett would be processed to be given bail in the shortest possible time,” he added.
A decision on Zimbabwe’s controversial central banker, Gideon Gono, would be made “at an appropriate time” after his performance had been evaluated, he said. “I have heard people who are trying to crucify him even before you have evaluated his work.”
Zimbabwe would adopt a “a multi-denomination facility” for its currency in the immediate future – including U.S. dollars and South African rands, Tsvangirai said. Civil servants would be paid first an allowance and then their salaries in foreign currency “until the real value of the Zimbabwe dollar is established.”
