Zimbabwe plans out-of-court settlement of dispute with German bank
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com
23 September, 2010 02:51:00 APA
Harare – Zimbabwe is considering an out-of-court settlement with German bank
KfW Bankengruppe which is owed €40 million borrowed more than 12 years ago
to rehabilitate the troubled Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (Ziscosteel),
APA learns here Thursday
Sources said the KfW Bankengruppe settlement would be announced on October 8
when the case comes up at the North Gauteng High Court in South Africa.
“The Zimbabwean government has decided to go for a settlement with the
German bank KFW Gruppe and offered to repay the 40 million Euros,”
Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) Vice President Louis Fick said.
A South African farmer dispossessed of his property under President Robert
Mugabe’s land reform programme, Fick is leading a campaign to sue the
Zimbabwean government over the expropriation of farms.
The North Gauteng High Court in July postponed the auction of several
properties in South Africa owned by the Zimbabwean government which had been
seized to pay back loans from the German bank as well as compensate a group
of South African farmers who lost their farms under the land reform
programme.
The postponement came after the Zimbabwean government appealed against the
legality of the sale.
Seven properties in South Africa’s Western Cape and Gauteng provinces were
seized by KfW Bankengruppe in May over Harare’s failure to settle a
multi-million dollar loan.
The government, through Ziscosteel, entered into the loan agreement with the
German bank in January 1998.
Repayment of the loan was then meant to be done in 16 instalments starting
from May 2000. But after only four payments, the last being in 2002,
Ziscosteel stopped paying, leaving the German bank with no other option than
seek other means of repayment.