While South Africa starts making plans to deport thousands of undocumented Zimbabweans in their country, Zimbabwe has asked them for a three billion rand loan.Finance Minister Tendai Biti said on Wednesday that Zimbabwe is seeking 3.25 billion rand from South Africa in the form of lines of credit and an overdraft facility. Biti is set to lead a delegation, including business executives, to South Africa this month to start talks about the loan.
In South Africa there are two facilities that we are negotiating, one is a line of credit of 500 million rand, one is a revival of an old overdraft facility of 2.75 billion rand, Biti said at a meeting with business executives in Harare.
Biti said South Africas parliament had ratified a bilateral and investment promotion agreement (BIPPA) signed with Zimbabwe last year, opening the way for private companies from that country to look for opportunities in Zimbabwe.
The general understanding is that now that the South African and Zimbabwean BIPPA has been ratified by the South African parliament and there should be movement and traction on that, Biti said.
Biti made no reference to the fact that the BIPPA is not being respected, as a number of South African farmers in Zimbabwe have faced illegal land seizures. They are meant to be protected by the BIPPA, but South Africa has refused to honour its protection obligations, previously arguing that the BIPPA had not been ratified. If the agreement has now been ratified as Biti claims, then South Africa should be protecting farmers.
Zimbabwes refusal to honour the BIPPA is not surprising, as many farms protected by BIPPAs with other countries have been seized as part of the land grab campaign.
Post published in: News