A Coalition has said Zimbabwe’s administration must decisively deal with the debt question in a press release reacting to President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s inauguration speech.
Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD), which deals with socio-economic justice in the Southern African country says the nation is faced with a high debt overhang in the region of $18 billion – combined domestic and external debt – with no tangible solution on how to deal with the crisis.
“The current debt burden has crippled the state from raising enough resources to fund the infrastructure gap among other public services,” ZIMCODD says. “A new sustainable debt plan is necessary.”
“ZIMCODD strongly discourage the government from pursuing the LIMA Plan –commercialising the debt on collateral basis, in gold and platinum sales will worsen the financial situation in the country.”
Zimbabwe, in the Peruvian capital, said it would use its own resources to extinguish its debts to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB) and the African Development Bank (AfDB).
The socio-economic justice coalition says the incoming government must engage the international monetary institutions towards debt cancellation.
“The mortgaging of our natural resources is counter productive and unsustainable to such an extent that future generations will curse any current leadership which forfeits the country‟s rich endowments in that manner; in any case, such a position must be put to a referendum to secure the citizens‟ mandate in that regard,” ZIMCODD says.
“The citizens would want to see the debt question dealt with decisively and a debt sustainability model going forward- we must never leave a legacy of both financial and ecological debt for our future generation.”
Zimbabwe owes US$1,2 billion arrears to the World Bank and another US$600 million to the African Development Bank (AFDB).
Zimbabwe’s President is yet to name a cabinet to take the country forward.
“The citizens of Zimbabwe from across the political, racial, tribal and ethnical divide are looking forward to the government putting in place and implementing strong domestic resource mobilisation strategies and plugging of illicit financial flows which has only benefitted a few and left millions impoverished,” ZIMCODD says.
