Harare a problem for South Africa’s central bank

Zimbabwe’s politicial and economic crisis has taken its toll on South Africa, but the country cannot interfere in its neighbour’s affairs, Reuters reported, quoting South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni. “I think that Zimbabwe has caused a lot of difficulties both politically and economically but the leadership of Zimbabwe has to deal with the issues themselves,” Mboweni said in an interview with the BBC.

Last year, an illegal grab of mainly white-owned commercial farms in Zimbabwe contributed to a steep slide in the volatile rand, which lost more than 12 percent of its value on a trade-weighted basis. Mboweni has acknowledged the impact of contagion concerns on foreign investor sentiment towards South Africa, but government officials have repeatedly railed against the link, saying it is unwarranted and probably racially motivated. One of the key issues has been the neutral stand taken by South African President Thabo Mbeki towards the backing that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has given to the invasion of white-owned farmland.

Mboweni is one of the few senior South African public figures who has expressed concern at the violent campaign, in which several farmers have died. He left the governing African National Congress to take the helm of the central bank but he is believed to still hold political ambitions.