Africa Briefs

Zim says compensation only for elderly white farmers

The Zimbabwe government will give priority to elderly white farmers when it starts compensating those who lost their properties during the controversial land reforms, the president said in an interview published Sunday.

The finance and agriculture ministries last week said they had budgeted 53 million Zimbabwean dollars (US$18 million) in payments to white commercial farmers whose properties were seized nearly 20 years ago under Robert Mugabe.

The government pledged to target those in “financial distress”.

In an interview with the state-owned Sunday Mail newspaper, Emmerson Mnangagwa, said the estimated value of the improvements on the farms would be three billion Zimbabwe dollars (US$1 billion) and that government was not under pressure to pay all farmers.

“We are looking at old white farmers as we make payment,” Mnangagwa told the paper ahead of Zimbabwe's 39th independence anniversary on Thursday.

“We don't pay compensation to those who are fit. Our constitution bids us to pay for improvements on land. We do not pay for land because no one brought land to Zimbabwe.

“When we feel we do not have resources, no one compels us to do anything,” he said, adding that the government was also in talks with the British government to help “to contribute to this compensation”.

– Nampa/AFP



Mozambique's IMF loan programme to be decided soon

The International Monetary Fund could approve a loan programme for Mozambique as soon as this week to help the African nation recover from a devastating cyclone, an official with the international lender said on Friday.

“We have moved very rapidly to support Mozambique,” said Abebe Aemro Selassie, director of the IMF's African department.

Speaking during the spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington, he said the IMF's board could decide on a so-called rapid credit facility in the order of US$120 million.

Cyclone Idai tore through central Mozambique on 14 March, and earlier this month the World Bank said the direct economic losses could be as high as US$773 million. That estimate covered damage to buildings, infrastructure and agriculture.

IMF managing director Christine Lagarde on Thursday promised a prompt payment to Mozambique as soon as the global lender's board approves the credit facility.

– Nampa/Reuters



Egypt expects its debt to become 'euroclearable'

Egypt has signed an agreement with Euroclear, Europe's biggest settlement house for securities, to allow holders of its sovereign debt to clear transactions outside the country beginning in six months' time, its finance minister said.

Mohamed Maait also told Reuters that Egypt hopes to announce a new sovereign debt issue by the end of September and hopes it will be eligible for clearing via Belgium-based Euroclear.

“Hopefully by October this year, we will be starting to launch the first part of our debt, [making it] euroclearable,” Maait said in a phone interview late on Saturday.

The government is considering issuing “green bonds, samurai, panda, sukuk and infrastructure bonds”, he said.

Euroclearability is seen as one of the last stages of capital market development and can sharply lower borrowing costs for emerging market economies, says PwC.

The deal will help “create the right market conditions for local currency sovereign debt issuance,” according to a draft Euroclear press release, seen by Reuters.

Settling debt via Euroclear requires high levels of transparency as well as specifics on the size and structure of the debt to be issued, among other aspects under Euroclear rules.

– Nampa/Reuters



Sudan protesters demand immediate handover of power

Sudan's main protest group on Sunday called for the immediate handover of power to a civilian transitional government and said it would maintain street demonstrations to push for its aims.

Such a transitional council should be protected by the Sudanese armed forces, the Sudanese Professionals Association said in a statement.

“The Sudanese Professionals Association affirms the continuation of the sit-in and the exercise of all forms of peaceful pressure to achieve the objectives of the revolution,” it said.

– Nampa/Reuters



Struggle over leadership deepens divisions in Tunisia

Tunisia's ruling party Nidaa Tounes on Saturday elected two leaders, one of them the president's son, in two parallel congresses, deepening the division that has hit the party in recent years.

The new crisis that hit Nidaa Tounes comes months ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections expected in October and November, which could complicate its competition against the rival Ennahda moderate Islamist party.

Although the slogan of the first electoral congresses of Nidaa Tounes which started last week was “unity”, it ended by dividing into two congresses.

The first congress elected the lawmaker Sofian Toubel as head of the party's central committee. The second elected Hafedh Caid Essebsi, the son of the president Beji Caid Essebsi.

The divisions have shaken the party since 2015, as Essebsi's son has been criticised for seeking to control the party, prompting many of its leaders to resign.

– Nampa/Reuters