At the tail-end of April, Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa announced that Zimbabwe had secured money to clear World Bank and African Development Bank (AfDB) arrears, but it seems that is not the case and the government must come clean on where we stand on the debt.
Comment: NewsDay Editor
On Friday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that the debt clearance strategy had stalled because Zimbabwe was yet to reach an agreement with the World Bank and other multilateral lenders.
Yet in April, Chinamasa buoyantly announced that the government had met all conditions “precedent to the repayment of debt arrears to the World Bank and the African Development Bank”.
He said Zimbabwe’s debt payment plan had been “scrutinised and adjudged” and on this basis Zimbabwe was to proceed to repay its debt arrears.
Our sister paper, the Zimbabwe Independent, also reported that Zimbabwe had struck a deal that would see it access finance from a Singaporean company and that would lead to the repayment of the debt.
However, three and a half months later, it seems Zimbabweans were led down the garden path and the country has not put in place measures to pay off the multilateral lenders.
This is a huge scandal and Chinamasa ought to provide details on why he misled the nation in April or better still, why he has not updated Zimbabweans on why they have not engaged the World Bank and AfDB on the repayment of the debt.
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The country’s economic turn-around, at least according to Chinamasa, was premised on repaying the priority lenders, which would ultimately allow Zimbabwe to access cheap loans, which would be integral to the country’s revival.
But it seems this plan has come a cropper and there is nobody to explain why, or Chinamasa hoped the matter would soon die down and nobody would ask questions.
Thanks to the IMF for raising this issue and we hope legislators will put Chinamasa on his toes and get him to explain why this is the situation.
If the deal is still on the table, the Finance minister should tell Zimbabweans why it has taken so long to conclude and when it will be concluded.
Chinamasa has often been lauded as a breath of fresh air, with his candour in the ministry, but his silence on this would mean that he is just like the rest – they have no clue on how to address the country’s ills and are not honest about it.
We are waiting for answers and hope Chinamasa provides the answers soon.
