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Feb 10 2012 18:19
The rand tumbled against the dollar in late afternoon trade as the local currency tracked a jittery euro.
Feb 10 2012 17:28
President Jacob Zuma will make an announcement "of national importance" on Saturday, says a central bank statement.
Feb 10 2012 14:37
A weak euro has dragged down the rand, causing it to extend losses against the dollar as the eurozone debt crisis affected investor sentiment.
Brussels - The European Union and the US should help Zimbabwe develop its agriculture and attract investment rather than impose sanctions that have hurt the people, South Africa's foreign minister said on Wednesday.
Washington and Brussels have imposed visa bans and asset
freezes on President Robert Mugabe and other senior Zimbabwean
officials. US sanctions also bar Americans from engaging in
any transactions or dealings with them.
"They (the sanctions) hurt the ordinary people ... if you
have sanctions against the government then obviously investors
will not want to deal with that government, tourists get
frightened," Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said in an interview.
"They hurt the people that deserve the help, they hurt the
whole people," the South African minister told Reuters.
Opponents of Mugabe say his policy of forcing white farmers
off their land has exacerbated the problem in a country where
hyper-inflation has crippled the economy. Mugabe blames
international sanctions.
Zimbabwe's economic decline, once seen by the opposition as
the only factor that could weaken Mugabe, has been worsening
while he digs in for a prolonged power struggle over the
creation of a power-sharing government.
Inflation is officially 231 million percent. Zimbabwe is
dependent on handouts and malnutrition is on the rise.
"The EU, the United States and other countries should begin
to support the farmers to plant, to get fertilisers, to get
business people to invest in Zimbabwe," Dlamini-Zuma said.
"It will help the people, they will get jobs, they will get
money, they will be able to plant, they will be able to have
food and not only to rely on aid," she added.
The European Commission proposed in July using €1bn in unspent EU farm funds on a programme to buy seed and fertiliser for Africa this year and next, helping the continent to deal with threatened food shortages.
But the proposal has run into trouble as EU lawmakers and
governments said the bloc's executive did not choose the right
budgetary procedure.
"It is ridiculous to keep this fund in the air," Dlamini-Zuma said.
Zimbabweans had hoped a September 15 political deal would create a power-sharing leadership that could rescue the ruined economy. Instead, Zimbabwe's parties are deadlocked over allocating cabinet ministries.
- Reuters