[DEBATE] : (Fwd) Zimcodd on deal, Zimbabwe Social Forum

[Patrick Bond]

STATEMENT ON THE INTER-PARTY POWER SHARING AGREEMENT

2 October 2008

The Zimbabwe Coalition on debt and Development (ZIMCODD) notes with 
cautious optimism, the recent historic signing of an agreement between 
ZANU (PF), MDC (T) and MDC (M) in September 2008, facilitating the 
arrangement to form an all-inclusive government. We hope that that this 
agreement sets the political framework for economic recovery and meeting 
social needs. We take this opportunity to make our position clear on the 
management of national debt and development, in the context of this 
political development.

Zimbabwe’s Indebtedness and Aid Flows

We expect the new government to consider effective debt management to be 
a priority in tackling the national economic recovery agenda and beyond. 
Currently the external debt of Zimbabwe is proportional to the size of 
its economy. According to Joint External Debt Database of the IFIs (IMF 
and World Bank) the external debt was USD 4.9 billion at the end of 
2007. Zimbabwe is now one of the few countries with such a high and 
unsustainable level of indebtedness. Almost half of that debt can be 
traced from the Rhodesian government during the 1970s. Secondly, almost 
a quarter of that debt is due to Apartheid destabilisation acts in the 
1980s, because government had to borrow to strengthen itself to fight 
off these disturbances. Thirdly, the last quarter of the external debt 
originated from IFI lending during the 1990s, based on the disastrous 
Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP). In this view, we call 
for an official audit of the external debt to establish the nature and 
legitimacy of debts owed by Zimbabwe. After the power sharing agreement 
is implemented, it is likely that the political leadership will look 
forward to a massive injection of external resources into the country to 
reboot the economy, given the prevailing humanitarian and economic 
crisis. Various donor countries, multilateral agencies and other 
institutions have already made pledges of aid to Zimbabwe in the new 
dispensation. The new government must reveal the nature of this aid to 
avoid ambiguities associated with the relationship between current aid 
flows and new loans that will add to the already huge debt stock of the 
country. For a new beginning to take place for the Zimbabwean economy, 
the donor countries must cancel the debt unconditionally instead of 
creating more debt. Unconditional debt cancellation can free billions of 
dollars for social services, sustainable development and decent 
livelihoods. Any new aid inflows should add to economic development and 
not to indebtedness.

Quality of Social Services

The decline of the economy has been characterised by a corresponding 
collapse in social service delivery, with vulnerable groups such as 
workers, people living with HIV/AIDS
(PLWHAs), women and children being hardest hit. The problems of access 
to clean water, skills flight in local medical and health institutions, 
poor infrastructure development and maintenance, shortages of equipment 
for delivering amenities and other related problems, vividly illustrate 
the current poor state of social services. The genesis of this social 
decline can be located in the implementation of neo-liberal policies 
linked to ESAP, which left a legacy of increasing poverty, high 
unemployment, and a decline in health and educational standards amongst 
other things. The reason for this is that the IFIs with the compliance 
of the government liberalised and deregulated the economy through the 
commodification of social services including the implementation of 
massive cutbacks in expenditure in the mentioned areas.

The New Constitution

We expect the new constitution proposed in the power sharing agreement 
to specify people’s Social and Economic Rights in its Bill of Rights. 
Social and economic rights, which are based on principles of social 
justice and public obligation, will ensure that the rights to food 
security, health, education, housing, basic public utilities, transport, 
decent work and a living wage are enshrined in the constitution. 
Furthermore, it should give Parliament and civil society guaranteed, 
meaningful participation in any future loan contraction processes and 
management. Lastly, we demand that the constitution should place limits 
on debt servicing in relation to the social spending.

Role of Civil Society in Economic Stability

The agreement provides for the establishment of a National Economic 
Council composed of productive sectors and other relevant stakeholders. 
We hope that the proposed council will result in the inclusion of a 
broad spectrum of representative groups, to give civil society 
meaningful participation in the formulation of national development 
strategies. We in civil society demand the end to the inherent bias in 
favour of the business sector over other organized civic sectors, in 
regards to consultations over matters of economic management.

We hope that the new, inclusive government will create space and 
structures for meaningful engagement with civil society on these and 
other issues.

ZIMCODD P.O. Box 8840 Harare Email: zimcodd at zimcodd.co.zw Website: 
www.zimcodd.org.zw

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Theme: “People’s Solidarity against Poverty and Oppression”

The Zimbabwe Social Forum (ZSF) is a prelude to the African Social Forum 
(ASF) and World Social Forum (WSF) that take place annually. The Social 
Forum is "…an open meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic 
debate of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences 
and inter-linking for effective action, by groups and movements of Civil 
Society that are opposed to neo-liberalism and to domination of the 
world by capital and any form of imperialism, and are committed to 
building a society centered on the human person".


Venue: Harare Gardens

Dates: Friday 10 October 2008

Time: 0900hrs - 1700hrs

All are welcome!