[DEBATE] : (Fwd) Zim deals continue to punish the povo

[Patrick Bond]

Sunday Tribune

Financial aid planthreatened by row

Mugabe's Reserve Bank governor engages in a public tussle withtwo 
opposition ministers over Zimbabwe's economic policies

February 22, 2009 Edition 1

Stanley Gama and Maureen Isaacson

While South Africa and the region consider a R6 billion economic rescue 
package for Zimbabwe, war has broken out inside Zimbabwe's new unity 
government for control of the country's economic policy.

This week, Arthur Mutambara, the new deputy prime minister, and Gideon 
Gono, President Robert Mugabe's Reserve Bank governor, clashed over 
economic and financial policy.

Mutambara, who leads the smaller Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) 
faction in the coalition government, told Zimbabweans to ignore Gono's 
monetary policy statements and the recent budget of Patrick Chinamasa, 
Mugabe's then acting finance minister.

Mutambara said on Thursday: "Don't base your plans on what Chinamasa or 
Gono said. The [national budget and monetary policy] will be reviewed. 
There will be fundamental reviews on those two documents."

But Gono retorted immediately, by saying: "Nothing has been reversed and 
nothing will be reversed. The Reserve Bank wishes to advise all 
stakeholders locally, regionally and internationally that the monetary 
policy statement as announced on February 2 does constitute the 
legitimate policy position in the affairs of monetary policy management 
of the country.

"Stakeholders, particularly the banking sector players, are therefore 
called upon to ensure that they do not break the standing legitimate 
statutory requirements as [are] set in the Zimbabwean laws."

He blasted Mutambara for "deliberately causing disruptive confusions" 
and "destructive pronouncements" and advised him to "carefully weigh his 
pronouncements" and to avoid "engaging in needless brawls".

Gono, a close Mugabe ally, is widely regarded as a major obstacle to 
restoring sound economic and monetary policy and many foreign donors 
have said his dismissal is one of their preconditions for providing 
foreign aid.

Tendai Biti, Zimbabwe's new finance minister, is said to be unwilling to 
work with Gono.

The clash over economic policy has cast doubt on the economic rescue 
package which the region is contemplating for Zimbabwe. Morgan 
Tsvangirai, the prime minister, and Biti met South African President 
Kgalema Motlanthe and Trevor Manuel, the finance minister, in Cape Town 
to ask for a short-term capital infusion of $600 million (about R6 
billion) mainly to kickstart health, education and other services.

Motlanthe would not confirm the figure, but said that finance ministers 
of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) would meet this 
week to draft a rescue package.

It is considered likely, though, that the SADC governments will require 
guarantees from the Zimbabwe government that the aid money would be 
spent according to sensible economic policies.

Asked if there was any draft agreement drawn up to ensure accountability 
for the South African money sent to Zimbabwe, Mutambara said in 
Johannesburg yesterday: "The issue of accountability is an important 
one. But we have no draft. We do not need that. We are not children."

He added: "Morgan Tsvangirai is the prime minister, Tendai Biti is the 
minister of finance and I am the deputy prime minister. We will make 
sure that there is accountability."

But Gono's strong reassertion of control over economic policy has raised 
doubts about who is, in fact, in charge.

# At a seminar at the University of Johannesburg on Friday, Elinor 
Sisulu, a Zimbabwean human rights activist, said that in respect of the 
package being bankrolled by South Africa to Zimbabwe, South African 
taxpayers had a right to accountability.

"I hope Tendai Biti, the finance minister, will have the power to change 
the way the Reserve Bank is run. If South African taxpayers are going to 
bankroll the package for Zimbabwe, there has to be accountability, which 
we don't have at the moment.

"But we know that Zimbabwe has always been run by processes parallel to 
government. If you do not have the power to ensure that your colleagues 
are released from detention, then what power do you have?"

Sisulu said she was critical of Zimbabwe's new government of national 
unity. "I have seen the mediation process as undemocratic and 
manipulative. The process has focused on the change of political 
personalities and not [the change] of a system of government.

"I have warned the MDC that they are lambs going into crocodile-infested 
waters.

"We have dysfunctional and corrupt institutions. The swearing in of the 
ministers was a scandal. Where was the chief justice? How did Zanu-PF 
turn up with seven extra ministers, in addition to the 14 that had been 
agreed on? We have to do things procedurally. Furthermore, Roy Bennett, 
a deputy minister designate, was arrested on the same day. Robert Mugabe 
says he wonders what the fuss is about …

"Maybe Roy Bennett's arrest is a good thing so he will be able to see 
inside the prisons. These conditions must be addressed.

"Zanu-PF has said that the civil society activists and Bennett will only 
be released if Tsvangirai signs an amnesty from 1980 onwards. Zanu-PF 
want assurance that past abuses will not be followed up.

"Our challenge to civil society is to see that this does not happen 
again and that those responsible are held to account."