Question 6
Mr K A Sinclair (COPE-Northern Cape) to ask the Deputy President:
(1) Why R300 million was transferred to the ZANU-PF government in Zimbabwe, in 2010;
(2) whether the utilisation of that monetary gesture was money well spent on the part of South Africa; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details;
(3) whether the Presidency regrets this as wasteful expenditure; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reply
Honourable Member the South African Government did not transfer any money to the Government of Zimbabwe in 2010.
The Honourable Member could be referring to the R300 million that was transferred to the Inclusive Government of Zimbabwe comprised of the ZANU PF and the two Movement for Democratic Change(MDC) formations in 2009 as South Africa’s contribution to the Short Term Emergency Recovery Plan of Zimbabwe (STERP) following the 30 March 2009 Southern African Development Community (SADC) Extraordinary Summit’s call to all its Member States to support STERP in the form of budget support, credit lines, etc.
The support from our Government took the form of a targeted contribution to the 2009 budget of the Zimbabwean Government. This contribution was governed by a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the respective Ministries of Finance of the two countries. As provided for in this Memorandum, the funds were transferred to the Zimbabwe Ministry of Finance in three equal tranches of R100 million in May, June and August 2009.
The beneficiary sectors of this contribution included monetarisation that is the conversion of Zimbabwe dollars held in private bank accounts to US dollars and assistance to vulnerable groups such as the aged and orphans.
In this regard, the South African Government has no regrets as the funds were accounted for; and used for the purposes for which they were intended.
I thank you.
