Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

Zimbabwe stopped paying most of its debts in the year 2000. Since then, Zimbabweans have faced economic chaos and social upheaval. But today there is new hope.

The Movement for Democratic Change is in charge of the Finance Ministry as part of a coalition government, and new elections are due next year. We don’t know who will win, and there’s no guarantee that things will automatically get better for people in Zimbabwe.

But, spurred on by the ‘threat’ of lending by China, Zimbabwe’s creditors are already discussing the future of the country’s crippling $7 billion debt. Some international financiers want this swept under the carpet, as part of a new battle for control in Africa, this time with China. They think it’s enough to ‘forgive and forget’.

But our sister campaigners in Zimbabwe fear the mistakes of the past could happen all over again. They want the role of lending and debt in Zimbabwe’s economic crisis to be examined. Details already uncovered include:

• UK loans for Mugabe’s police force to buy British-made Land Rovers
• Dodgy World Bank World Bank
  WB The World Bank was founded as part of the new international monetary system set up at Bretton Woods in 1944. Its capital is provided by member states’ contributions and loans on the international money markets. It financed public and private projects in Third World and East European countries.
  
  It consists of several closely associated institutions, among which :
  
  1. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, 189 members in 2017), which provides loans in productive sectors such as farming or energy ;
  
  2. The International Development Association (IDA, 159 members in 1997), which provides less advanced countries with long-term loans (35-40 years) at very low interest (1%) ;
  
  3. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), which provides both loan and equity finance for business ventures in developing countries.
  
  As Third World Debt gets worse, the World Bank (along with the IMF) tends to adopt a macro-economic perspective. For instance, it enforces adjustment policies that are intended to balance heavily indebted countries’ payments. The World Bank advises those countries that have to undergo the IMF’s therapy on such matters as how to reduce budget deficits, round up savings, enduce foreign investors to settle within their borders, or free prices and exchange rates.
  
  projects which were ill-conceived and brought no benefits
• Bailout loans with conditions that increased unemployment and poverty in the 1990s

But Zimbabweans simply don’t know the origins of all $7 billion of debt, nor who benefited from the loans in the first place. That’s why they’re demanding a full audit of the debt.

Take Action

Please email Donald Kaberuka, the President of the African Development Bank, which is leading the discussions among Zimbabwe’s creditors, and ask him to support a democratic audit of Zimbabwe’s debts.