South Africa’s Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has said the South African government is working on extending a short-term credit facility to Zimbabwe in the region of R100-million (US$7 211 600,92).
The credit facility comes after South Africa refused to offer Zimbabwe a $1.2bn bailout package in a separate request.
According to reports, Zimbabwe had provided collateral for this loan in the form of its holding of South Africa Land Bank bills. The extension of this facility depended on Zimbabwe being able to provide further collateral. Zimbabwe had always repaid its loans under this facility in the past.
Concerning the $1.2bn requested by Zimbabwe and turned down by South Africa, South Africa’s Treasury spokesperson, Jabulani Sikhakhane in an interview stated that “there was a meeting in December where a request for $1.2bn was made and obviously South Africa does not have that kind of money. The meeting could have been towards the end of December (2018) around the 20th or somewhere there. We don’t have the money, it is just that simple.
Since assuming office in November 2017, President Mnangagwa has reportedly not gotten any form of financial bailout from China or Russia.
