Zimbabwe pays Botswana fuel debt

Zimbabwe pays Botswana fuel debt

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By Agencies

ZIMBABWE has paid the P28.1 million loan it got from Botswana in 2000 as a credit line following problems of fuel shortage.

Clifford Maribe, of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation told BOPA today that "we got a confirmation from Bank of Botswana and the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning that Zimbabwe has deposited the money in the Botswana Government account." Botswana extended 10 million litres of diesel fuel, five million litres of petrol and five million litres of aviation fuel to Zimbabwe to bail the country out of an acute fuel crisis.

The loan was interest free repayable over 24 months. Botswana also gave Mozambique a fuel grant worth almost P1.5million.

The Zimbabwean debt was raised by the Auditor General's query seeking clarification from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation whether the loan had been written off.

This was so following the ministry's crediting of the National Petroleum Fund from which the loan was drawn by debiting against its 2001/2002 recurrent expenditure with the hope that Zimbabwe would later repay the loan.

However, the ministry issued a statement explaining that the loan has not been written off.

And that the Zimbabwean government had requested through the Botswana Embassy in Harare that it be provided with a government account where the money to could be deposited.

Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper quotes the country's Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono as saying, "we paid for everything that we owed our Botswana brothers.

"We also paid for all outstanding amounts relating to veterinary drugs that we received from them." BOPA
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