Standard Bank says no to Zimbabwe joining CMA

THE STANDARD Bank Group, a South African financial giant, has poured cold water over the ambitious proposal by Zimbabwe to get rid of its worthless currency and be brought into Southern Africa's rand monetary union. The group said in a comminique that political reform was a prerequisite for Zimbabwe before any efforts to bail it out of its seven year economic meltdown could be considered.

The communique said that adopting Zimbabwe into the Union would be an ernomous expense to both the region and South Africa. The bank said any debate on bringing Zimbabwe into the CMA would best take place once there was some semblance of convergence between the country's financial indicators and those of the region, a situation which would require a resurrection of the real economy - which will only occur once property rights are restored.

The bank's call comes amid the Harare government's plans to further undermine property rights through a planned forcible seizure of at least 51% shareholding from all foreign-owned companies. Earlier this month, the Southern African Development Community was working on a plan to include Zimbabwe into the rand Common Monetary Area (CMA), currently comprising South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland.

Please email your comments to
editor@africanecho.co.uk