TELITA SNYCKERS: The IMF: imperialist suffocator, or business rescue practitioner?
SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande has likened the IMF loan to ‘suffocation by imperialist interests’. Even if that were true – and it’s not – is that any worse than suffocation by a government that has proved to be inept, captured and corrupted?
As FM editor Rob Rose recently pointed out (../2020-08-24-rob-rose-like-it-or-not-sa-lurches-towards-imf/), like it or not, SA is lurching towards a clumsy embrace with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), hot on the heels of a Covid-linked loan.
The ANC has long been wary of the IMF. After Nelson Mandela came to power, he reportedly saw the potential benefits of a cheap loan, but the ANC rejected the IMF’s offer of assistance. This status quo continued until last month, when the IMF loaned us $4.3bn as part of its “rapid financing instrument”, which came with a low 1.1% interest rate and some minor conditions...
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