The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) executive board has agreed to extend a loan of $4.3 billion (R70 billion) to South Africa in it’s fight against COVID-19.
According to National Treasury, the multi-billion rand loan had not jeopardised South Africa’s sovereignty.
Treasury’s Director General Dondo Mogajane: “We will certainly be able to live up to the expectations and the commitments that we made in getting this loan. I think it is important that South Africans should be comfortable that one, we did not put the country at risk and the sovereignty of the country is intact, which is what we have agreed with the IMF.”
The additional IMF funding is a low interest loan that contributes to government’s fiscal relief package while respecting South Africa’s decisions on how best to provide relief to the economy and those worst affected by the current crisis.
At the same time, South Africans are skeptical and have been calling for measures to safeguard the R70 billion loan to protect it from looting.
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) is already probing the R500 billion COVID-19 relief fund and at least 90 companies in Gauteng that have allegedly received irregular contracts from the Gauteng Health Department.
the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has called on government and the ANC to hold those found guilty of corruption accountable.
In a statement, the EFF has rejected the IMF loan, calling it the biggest political blunder in the history of South Africa.