Ministerial taskforce for Zimbabwe

South African President Thabo Mbeki has appointed a five-member ministerial team to liaise with their Zimbabwean counterparts in a bid to find solutions to the economic crisis facing President Robert Mugabe’s government. According to a statement from Mbeki’s cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the taskforce is made up of ministers of finance, trade and industry, land and agriculture, minerals and energy as well as foreign affairs. “Consultations will be held for urgent interaction between the ministers of finance and trade and industry with their Zimbabwean counterparts to deal with urgent matters and prepare for broader interaction between the two governments,” the cabinet statement said. Preliminary talks between the trade and finance ministers are to take place next week at a Southern African Development Community (SADC) ministerial meeting in Windhoek, Namibia. The appointment of a taskforce follows comments by Mbeki before Zimbabwe’s elections in June that his government would engage with its northern neighbour to help find solutions to its economic crisis that includes a lack of foreign currency and endemic fuel shortages. The suspension of donor funding by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank - because of the failure of Mugabe’s government to stick to budgetary targets - has worsened the country’s economic outlook. In February, South Africa offered Zimbabwe a rescue package amounting to about US $133 million to stave off fuel and power shortages. This included a supply agreement with South Africa’s parastatal oil company SASOL, while power utility ESKOM extended credit lines to the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA). The two countries also identified about 20 joint investment projects in Zimbabwe in infrastructure, tourism and natural gas exploitation to be funded by South Africa’s state-owned corporations such as the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). It is in South Africa’s interest, say analysts, to help Zimbabwe out of its crisis. Zimbabwe is South Africa’s biggest trading partner in Africa. In 1998 alone, Zimbabwe imported goods valued at US $1 billion from South Africa. Economist Lumkile Mondi said South Africa could not afford to allow Zimbabwe’s economy to collapse. “This would adversely affect the whole southern African region, of which the two countries are powerful leaders. South Africa could face a huge migration by Zimbabweans should its economy collapse,” said Mondi. Mbeki’s ministerial team, say analysts, is bound to receive a sympathetic hearing in Mugabe’s new cabinet. “Mbeki’s strategy of quietly engaging Mugabe’s government when everybody was bashing him before the elections has earned him respect among ruling ZANU-PF members,” said policy analyst Claude Kabemba. He added that this leverage will prove important for Mbeki to influence developments in Zimbabwe as well as for strengthening future relations between the two governments.