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Creditors continue to take millions of dollars out of
Southern Africa despite food crisis.
July 2002
Canadian campaigning group the Social Justice Committee reports that six countries in Southern Africa pay the World Bank more than US$150 million a year, US$60 of which is interest. Despite the current crisis in which up to 10 million face starvation, the payments continue.
Most recent figures (2000) show that Malawi pays the World Bank $36 million a year, $13 in interest and $23 in principal repayments. Zambia pays US$27 million, $15 in interest and $12 in principal repayments. Lesotho pays $11 million, $5 in interest and $6 in principal repayments. Zimbabwe pays $73 million, $27 in interest and $46 in principal repayments. Swaziland pays $2 million, $1 in interest and $1 million toward principal repayments, while Mozambique pays $9 million in total, $5 in interest and $4 in principal repayments.
As noted by Derek MacCuish, Coordinator for the Social Justice Committee,
"The World Bank refuses to consider a moratorium on debt repayments
for countries in crisis, and as a primary creditor the Bank demands that
it gets paid first and in full. This is loan shark behaviour and it has
to stop.
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