July 9, 2009

Government must not repay debts acquired by Mugabe and ZANU-PF
 

 
Under normal circumstances, a government that takes over from another is usually obligated to honour contracts entered into and to repay legitimate national debts acquired by its predecessor.
That happens in most democratic nations where transition from one leader to another is undertaken peacefully and where contracts and debts are entered into with the knowledge and consent of the citizenry.

This week, one half of Zimbabwe’s government of national unity fired a salvo by declaring that they would not be honouring debts acquired by the previous ZANU-PF government of Robert Mugabe.
"Zimbabwe does not have the capacity to pay the debt,” Tendai Biti, Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister, told debt cancellation campaigners at a conference in Harare. “We will not pay this debt."

Zimbabwe is broke and unable to care for itself or to provide the most basic amenities for its citizens.
Inter Press Services reports that, according to the latest Ministry of Finance and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe statistics, released on Jun 30, “Zimbabwe is sitting on a total external debt of US$ 4.6 billion”.

It is estimated that approximately 65 percent of these external obligations are in arrears and yet “Zimbabwe requires 8.4 billion dollars for its economic blueprint, the Short Term Emergency Recovery Programme (STERP) launched by the government in April this year”.

"It would be obscene for me as the Minister of Finance to direct that we pay when 90 percent of our people are living below the poverty datum line, surviving on less than US 20 cents a day," Biti, of the Tsvangirai led MDC, told IPS.
It is reported that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have demanded the repayment of past loans “before new lines of credit can be opened”.
But Biti is adamant that they will not pay.

There is more to Biti’s refusal to honour Zimbabwe’s financial obligations than the mere failure of a bankrupt Zimbabwe to repay its loans and debts.

The MDC is unwilling to repay loans and debts acquired by Mugabe and his ZANU-PF government at a time when they were ruling Zimbabwe alone.

In addition, civil society is reportedly demanding an audit of the loans and debts to determine how such a colossal amount was used before agreeing to repay the monies.

Civil society organisations want an audit “to determine the extent to which the country’s debts have become illegitimate and odious”.

IPS says that debt becomes illegitimate when contracted by corrupt governments outside legal frameworks and when there is no public consultation and that debts become odious if they are not used to benefit the citizenry but rather to oppress them.

And this is where the problems lie.
For a long time, governments, most notably Libya, China, Malaysia and international finance houses like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, poured money into Mugabe’s coffers while turning a blind eye to the mayhem being visited on the people.

It can easily be argued that Zimbabweans sustained themselves with the assistance of non-governmental organisations while money and loans being acquired by Mugabe and his lieutenants was not used to benefit the people.

It can also easily be argued that these monies were acquired without the necessary internal consultations and, when received, were used to oppress the people rather than to benefit them in any way.
The money strengthened Mugabe and ZANU-PF in their relentless assault on citizens.
Now the money needs to be paid back and those who survived are being asked to pay it back.
“Tendai Biti is on the right track, ZANU PF debt is illegal and to a large extent tainted with corruption,” wrote a regular Zimbabwean commentator. “It would be better if (former Mugabe Finance minister) Herbert Murerwa, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, Gideon Gono, and Mugabe himself can explain what they did with these amounts.”

He, however, conceded that Biti’s challenge is how to convince financial institutions on why they should continue to finance the Government of National Unity with huge, unpaid ZANU-PF bad debts still outstanding.

An official of the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD), who hosted the conference in Harare last week, said that it is important to determine the legitimacy of public debt because it affects the realisation of people’s social and economic rights.

"We should analyse the legitimacy of the debt in order to separate what ought to be paid and what not,” said Dakarayi Matanga, ZIMCODD director. “Public debt is one of the major hindrances to the realisation of sustainable development.” He added that countries spend huge amounts of national resources servicing debt at the expense of development projects and the provision of basic services, such as health and education.

However, that aside, there appears to be serious resistance from civil society as far as paying these debts is concerned.
Some campaigners hold that the Zimbabwean debt is politically related, arguing that Zimbabwean rank and file did not take part when decisions to contract loans were made.

It is without doubt that, through these loans and debts, Mugabe accelerated his abuse of the people, including using the money to reward his party thugs for terrorising the nation, rape of citizens, killing of political opponents, starving the people and the violation of human rights, while he abused public funds.

In order to incorporate his friends and political assassins, there was no difference between government and party. The party was part of government and government property was used for ZANU-PF party business without questions.

There was no accountability and Mugabe always got what he wanted, especially when embarking on those notorious and frequent foreign trips with his wife. It earned Mugabe the nickname of Vasco da Gama before travel bans were imposed on him and his assistants and ministers.

No, the MDC must not pay these loans and debts; at least not until it is verified that the monies borrowed in the people’s name was used on the people.

Otherwise those people who kept giving Mugabe money and more money as human rights and murders increased, as new weapons were brought in to suppress the people and as citizens were stripped of any property rights must go to Mugabe and his proxies because Zimbabweans do not know that such a lot of money had been made available for their respite.
Zimbabweans want both the lenders and the borrowers to itemize the use of every cent received on behalf of the nation.

Zimbabweans are neither in a position nor the mood to pay for their own torture and for the murders of their kin.

Not only does this have everything to do with Robert Mugabe, this has everything to do with the Zimbabwean people who should now be citing Mugabe, the IMF, the World Bank, Malaysia, Cuba, South Africa and other Mugabe’s international friends as respondents in a case of the murder of Zimbabwe and its people.
The heart of the matter is that Zimbabwean people must not be held to account for money they did not receive; they cannot be asked to repay money that was borrowed to be used to oppress them, resulting in the deaths of so many and the disintegration of the nation.
Before we talk about repaying the loans and debts, we need a thorough audit of how much money was borrowed and how every cent of it was used.

We need a land audit to determine who was given our land after such a spree that killed so many of our compatriots and robbed thousands of citizens of their livelihood.
We need an audit of what happened to the millions of dollars meant to buy farms and other land to resettle people.

And above all, we need an audit of our citizens.
Too many died and too many disappeared. We must, of necessity, determine how those whose graves can be identified died. Every dead citizen must be accounted for and the cause of death determined.

What do you say?
Send me your comments on tano@swradioafrica.com I agree with Biti’s position on not paying this money back because it was not our money and was used against us. The result of that money is evident in Zimbabwe today.
In every sense of the word, our country is now Zimbabwe Ruins because of this money.
I am Tanonoka Joseph Whande and that, my compatriots, is the way it is today, Thursday, July 9, 2009