Media reports suggesting that Standard Chartered Bank (Stanchart), a British multinational banking and financial services group, has offered the autocratic Zanu PF government a US$262 million bailout package are highly disturbing.
Jacob Mafume,PDP national spokesperson.
As reported by the Zimbabwe Independent in its issue of December 2, the Stanchart will pay US$262 million to settle part of Zimbabwe’s debt to the African Development Bank (AfDB).
Zimbabwe owes the AfDB over US$600 million and the remaining debt will be paid by the African Export and Import Bank (Afreximbank).
The debt was expected to be settled ahead of AfDB’s board meeting on Wednesday in order to rescue the broke Zimbabwean government where its debt issue was expected to be discussed.
Through high-level government corruption, Zimbabwe is broke and it cannot even pay salaries for its civil servants while at the same time it has increased its human rights abuses against its citizens.
With such an appalling record, no serious bank or financial institution can lend money to such an oppressive regime unless it is on the basis of politics.
However, financially bailing out such a regime is supporting the oppression of the people.
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As the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), our position is that for the Zimbabwe government to earn any financial support from the international community, it must first reform.
We are, therefore, alarmed that Stanchart, like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, has chosen to align itself with a corrupt and ruthless regime.
It is shocking that the international financial institutions want to bail out Zimbabwe when virtually every government minister or senior public official in office has this year been implicated in some form of corruption running into millions of dollars.
The international community is also turning a blind eye to the fact that in order for Zimbabwe to receive any form of financial assistance, it must first meet certain conditions and reforms.
However, issues to do with the indigenisation and empowerment policy, land, electoral reforms, tackling corruption and the promotion of ease of doing business, remain outstanding.
Zimbabwe must also reduce its wage bill for civil servants, where tens of thousands of ghost workers are employed. Instead, Zanu PF is on a recruitment drive for thousands of young people to train as soldiers as it readies for the 2018 elections with the aim of suppressing the people’s will.
As PDP, we reiterate our position that when democratic change finally comes to Zimbabwe, the people of this country will repudiate this debt as it has been used to prop up a rogue regime and oppress the people of Zimbabwe.
We again call upon the international financial community not to support the corrupt and callous regime of President Robert Mugabe, but rather to support democratic change, reforms and a better Zimbabwe for all.
The bailout of Zimbabwe by the international financiers will only be used by Zanu PF to build its war chest ahead of the 2018 elections and fatten the pockets of a few elite while the majority of the citizens continue to wallow in abject poverty.
