Prominent journalist and award-winning filmmaker, Hopewell Chin’ono, said that Zimbabwe’s failure to get loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was not due to sanctions but the government’s refusal to pay debts.
An article published by The Guardian in 1999, three years before sanctions were imposed by Western governments, shows that the government of the then President Robert Mugabe announced that it was severing ties with the Bretton Woods institutions. Part of the article reads:
The IMF has repeatedly refused to sanction a £33 million balance of payments loan because of concerns about the true cost of Zimbabwe’s involvement in the Congo conflict, the Mugabe government’s plans for land redistribution and alleged shady deals in the energy sector.
… An aid freeze will hurt Zimbabwe’s already strapped economy and deepen Mr Mugabe’s unpopularity. The Zimbabwean currency has already lost more than 50 per cent of its value against major currencies in the past year and the row with the IMF is expected to fuel inflation, currently running at 50 per cent.
The government of Zimbabwe has blamed sanctions for the economic challenges that have worsened since the military coup in November 2017. An anti-sanctions march will be held on October 25 this year.
More: The Guardian