Crisis takes centre stage at economic summit

The current political crisis and its consequences for southern Africa dominated the second day of the southern Africa summit of the World Economic Forum (WEF), news reports said on Friday.

British Junior Foreign Minister for Africa Peter Hain told delegates that Britain would not write a “blank cheque” for President Mugabe’s land reform programmes. He warned that Britain would only give US $54 million to Zimbabwe if the government ensured that it would reach the “poor landless people”. “We want to support a land reform project that will help the rural poor. Until they agree that, the money will remain on the table or it will go to another deserving African country,” Hain said.

Zimbabwe’s Local Government and National Housing Minister, John Nkomo told a press conference that Britain had insulted Mugabe by setting transparent and fair elections as conditions for releasing the money. “The fairest thing for them would be to keep their mouths shut and let us carry on with our farms. The British government is not qualified to tell us anything,” Nkomo said. “We have a system where anybody who expresses interest is allocated a farm and we will continue with that system.”