<p>Zimbabwe’s economic growth is threatened by high government spending, an untenable foreign exchange regime and inadequate reforms, a senior International Monetary Fund (IMF) official said.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-43288 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/imf-headquarters.jpg" alt="Low oil out impacts Angola’s economic growth" width="600" height="340" /></p>
<p data-reactid="41">Zimbabwe was once one of Africa’s most promising economies but suffered decades of decline as former President Robert Mugabe pursued policies that included the violent seizure of white-owned commercial farms and money-printing that led to hyperinflation.</p>
<p>Mugabe, 93, resigned on Tuesday after nearly four decades in power following pressure from the military, the ruling ZANU-PF party and the general population.</p>
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<p data-reactid="43">New ZANU-PF leader Emmerson Mnangagwa is expected to be sworn in as Zimbabwe’s president on Friday.</p>
<p data-reactid="44">Zimbabwe has not been able to borrow from international lenders since 1999 when it started defaulting on its debt, and has $1.75 billion rand in foreign arrears.</p>
<p data-reactid="45">“The economic situation in Zimbabwe remains very difficult,” Gene Leon, IMF’s mission chief for Zimbabwe said in a statement to Reuters late on Wednesday.</p>
<p data-reactid="46">“Immediate action is critical to reduce the deficit to a sustainable level, accelerate structural reforms, and re-engage with the international community to access much needed financial support.”</p>
<p data-reactid="47">Leon said Zimbabwe should resolve arrears to the World Bank, African Development Bank and the European Investment Bank, among other reforms, for the IMF to consider future financing request from the country.</p>
<p>Zimbabwe should also be ready to implement strong macroeconomic policies and structural reforms to restore fiscal and debt sustainability, Leon said.</p>
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<p class="Attribution_content_27_rw" data-reactid="49">Reporting by David Lawder in Washington and Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo in Johannesburg; Editing by James Macharia</p>
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Zimbabwe’s economic situation “very difficult”: IMF mission chief

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<p>According to Dr Conrad Beyers, Department of Actuarial Science, University of Pretoria, Barclays Africa Chair in Actuarial Science, the credit rating downgrades that were widely expected for &#8220;Black Friday&#8221; appear less likely after the resignation of President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. Dr Conrad Beyers joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


Zimbabwe could save SA from downgrade

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<p>The easing of key economic and political risks and the emergence of positive macroeconomic deal drivers will accelerate global deal activity in 2018, according to the third edition of the Global Transactions Forecast issued by Baker McKenzie.</p>


Investors already knocking on Zimbabwe’s door

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<p>IFP leader, Mangoshuthu Buthelezi also gave us his views on the unfolding situation in Zimbabwe and the trend of African leaders lingering long after the party is over. He joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


ANC helped prop up Mugabe’s govt past its sell-by date – Mangosuthu Buthelezi

<p>Zimbabwe’s former vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa will be sworn in as president on Friday marking a new era for a country dominated by Robert Mugabe whose swift downfall this week ended nearly four decades in power.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-291761 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Zim_Emmerson-Mnangagwa_GettyImages_RZ1.png" alt="" width="850" height="605" /></p>
<p data-reactid="43">The ruling ZANU-PF party has nominated Mnangagwa to fill the vacancy left by Mugabe on Tuesday and he will be sworn in on Friday, said Jacob Mudenda, the speaker of parliament.</p>
<p data-reactid="45">Mugabe sacked Mnangagwa as vice president two weeks ago to smooth a path to the succession for his wife Grace, who is much younger than the 93-year-old leader. Mnangagwa fled for his own safety and the military seized control, shattering Mugabe’s authority.</p>
<p data-reactid="46">Mugabe held on for a week with ZANU-PF and others urging him to resign. He stepped down finally on Tuesday moments after parliament began an impeachment process. People danced in the streets and some brandished posters of Mnangagwa and army chief General Constantino Chiwenga, who led the takeover.</p>
<p data-reactid="47">Mnangagwa will land at Manyame Airbase in Harare at 6pm (1600 GMT), state broadcaster ZBC said.</p>
<p data-reactid="48">“I am advised that the swearing-in ceremony is planned for Friday,” Mudenda said. Mnangagwa issued a statement from hiding on Tuesday calling on Zimbabweans to unite to rebuild the country.</p>
<p>Other African countries have seen veteran leaders ousted by popular uprisings or in elections.</p>
<p data-reactid="50">By contrast, the military has ushered Mnangagwa to the threshold of power and for decades he was a faithful ally of Mugabe in charge of internal security in the mid-1980s when rights groups say 20,000 civilians were killed.</p>
<p data-reactid="51"><strong>“OLD ELITES”</strong></p>
<p data-reactid="52">Zimbabwe’s next leader faces the task of restoring the country’s fortunes. Alleged human rights abuses and flawed elections prompted many Western countries to impose sanctions in the early-2000s that hurt the economy.</p>
<p>Chinese investment softened the blow but the population of 16 million remains mainly poor and faces currency shortages and high unemployment. Staging clean elections next year will be key to winning fresh investment.</p>
<p data-reactid="60">Mnangagwa is almost certain to win that election but it would be a victory for the country’s “old elites” with the aid of China, said Guenther Nooke, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s personal representative for Africa.</p>
<p data-reactid="61">“He will manage to get elected using fear or many tricks, and then we’ll have a succession from one tyrant to the next,” Nooke told broadcaster SWR2.</p>
<p>China’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday it respected Mugabe’s decision to resign.</p>
<p data-reactid="74">Mugabe leaves a complex legacy. He is among the last of a generation of African leaders who led their countries to independence and then ruled. That group includes Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana, Julius Nyerere in Tanzania, Felix Houphouet-Boigny in Ivory Coast and Nelson Mandela in South Africa.</p>
<p data-reactid="75">But he also presided over a steep decline in Zimbabwe’s economy, won a series of elections after stifling the opposition and he stands accused of persecuting opponents.</p>
<p data-reactid="76">The forced takeover of white-owned farms from around 2000 aimed to bolster populist support for Mugabe but crippled foreign exchange earnings from agriculture and led to a period of hyperinflation.</p>
<p data-reactid="77">“President Mugabe will be remembered as a fearless pan-Africanist liberation fighter and the father of the independent Zimbabwean nation,” the chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, said in a statement.</p>
<p data-reactid="80">It said his decision to step down would enhance his legacy.</p>
<p>Many Zimbabweans also remain hostile to Mnangagwa because of his human rights record.</p>
<p>“The dark past is not going to disappear. They will be following him around like a piece of chewing gum on his shoe,” International Crisis Group’s southern Africa senior consultant Piers Pigou said.</p>
<p>“For him to really be seen to be doing the right thing, he’s going to have to introduce policies that fundamentally undermine the power structures of ZANU-PF, through a shift to genuine political pluralism and a decoupling of the party and state.”</p>
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<p class="Attribution_content_27_rw" data-reactid="82">Reporting by Harare and Johannesburg bureaus; Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; Editing by Janet Lawrence</p>
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Zimbabwe’s Mnangagwa to be sworn in as president on Friday

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<p>Joining CNBC Africa to talk about Zimbabwe’s investments landscape is Andrew Darfoor, Group CEO, Alexander Forbes.</p>


Alexander Forbes lays conditions to enable more investment in Zimbabwe

<p>Written by Dr Conrad Beyers, Barclays Africa Chair in Actuarial Science at the University of Pretoria</p>
<p>Credit rating downgrades for South Africa that were widely expected for &#8220;Black Friday&#8221; (24 November) appear less likely after the resignation of Pres. Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.</p>
<p>Credit rating agencies cite political related risks as the major element in their ratings decisions for South Africa. For this reason, significant positive sentiment that accompanies the political transition in Zimbabwe, which may positively affect the entire SADC region, is likely to convince rating agencies to follow a &#8220;wait-and-see&#8221; approach before deciding to downgrade South African debt further.</p>
<p>It is still possible that we are downgraded on Friday. In the light of the recent game-changing events in Zimbabwe rating agencies may be reluctant to commit to drastic decisions in the short term. Past experience shows that it is not typical for rating agencies to err on the pessimistic side.</p>
<p>Rating agencies are very careful to retain their credibility. Rating agencies however carry a risk of being &#8220;proven wrong&#8221; over the coming months if South Africa is severely downgraded in the midst of positive sentiment and the accompanying (even slight) potential for positive developments in December at the South African ruling party&#8217;s elective conference.</p>
<p>Over the longer term, the likelihood of credit rating downgrades could still be high, depending on economic and social developments.</p>
<p><strong><em>Note: The University of Pretoria hosts the Barclays Africa Chair in Actuarial Science – the views expressed by the holder of the Chair do not aim to represent any stance or viewpoint of Barclays Africa.</em></strong></p>


Has the resignation of Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe put SA’s downgrade on hold?

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<p>Zimbabwe&#8217;s Robert Mugabe, who has resigned as president, leaves behind a ruined economy and Mnangagwa needs to apologise for allowing that to happen says  Zimbabwean entrepreneur and newspaper publisher, Trevor Ncube.</p>


Rebuilding Zimbabwe: Mnangagwa needs to apologise for what he allowed to happen in Zimbabwe – Trevor Ncube

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<p>Trevor Ncube, Zimbabwean businessman joins CNBC Africa to discuss the new economic promise for Zimbabwe beyond Robert Mugabe.</p>


Media has an important role to play in Zimbabwe – Trevor Ncube

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<p>Trevor Ncube, Zimbabwean businessman joins CNBC Africa to discuss the new economic promise for Zimbabwe beyond Robert Mugabe.</p>


Rebuilding Zimbabwe: We stand on an opportunity to push the reset button – Trevor Ncube

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<p>Trevor Ncube, Zimbabwean businessman joins CNBC Africa to discuss the new economic promise for Zimbabwe beyond Robert Mugabe.</p>


This is how Zimbabwe can woo businesses – Trevor Ncube

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<p>Former Zimbabwean finance minister, Tendai Biti speaks on what South Africa, can learn from Zimbabwe’s political turmoil.</p>


Former FinMin Biti: What SA can learn from Zimbabwe

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<p>The chequered political career of Emmerson Mnangagwa proves that everything comes to those who wait. In this CNBC Africa Explainer we bring you an inside view of who’s Zimbabwe’s next president.  Mnangagwa is expected to be sworn in on Friday.</p>


Explainer: Who is Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe’s next president?

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<p>The change we are seeing in Zimbabwe means the country has a fresh opportunity to kick-start and rebuild the economy and reintegrate internationally. Former Zimbabwean finance minister, Tendai Biti joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


Zimbabwe needs a stamp of approval from IMF – Former FinMin Biti

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<p>The change we are seeing in Zimbabwe means the country has a fresh opportunity to kick-start and rebuild the economy and reintegrate internationally. Former Zimbabwean finance minister, Tendai Biti joins CNBC Africa to speak on the Zimbabwe-China relationship.</p>


We need to keep our relationship with China but change it – Zimbabwe’s ex-FinMin

<p>China said on Wednesday that it respects Robert Mugabe’s decision to resign as Zimbabwe’s president, a week after the African country’s army and Mugabe’s former political allies moved to end his four decades of rule.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-291654 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/MugabeXi-Jinping-GettyImages_RZ.png" alt="" width="850" height="565" /></p>
<p data-reactid="40">The 93-year-old Mugabe had clung on for a week after an army takeover, and finally resigned on Tuesday, moments after parliament began an impeachment process, prompting dancing in the streets of the capital, Harare.</p>
<p data-reactid="42">China has close ties with Zimbabwe and traditionally also with Mugabe himself, who is reviled in the West as a despot whose disastrous handling of the economy and willingness to resort to violence to maintain power destroyed one of Africa’s most promising states.</p>
<p>Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a regular news briefing that China was happy to see Zimbabwe peacefully and appropriately resolve the issue via talks, and that its policy toward the country would not change.</p>
<p data-reactid="44">“China respects Mr Mugabe’s decision to resign. He remains a good friend of the Chinese people,” Lu said, adding that Mugabe had made “historic contribution to Zimbabwe’s independence and liberation”.</p>
<p data-reactid="45">Zimbabwe’s army seized power after Mugabe sacked his former vice president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was a favorite to succeed him.</p>
<p data-reactid="46">Mugabe’s move was an apparent bid to smooth a path to the presidency for his wife Grace, 52, known to her critics as “Gucci Grace” for her reputed fondness for luxury shopping.</p>
<p data-reactid="47">Mnangagwa is expected to be sworn in within days and serve the remainder of Mugabe’s term until the next election, which must be held by September 2018.</p>
<p data-reactid="48">Asked about a U.S. call for free elections in Zimbabwe, Lu said China believed it could handle its own affairs and China hoped other countries would not interfere.</p>
<p data-reactid="49">China and Zimbabwe have a close diplomatic and economic relationship, and China had stood with Mugabe’s government in the face of Western economic sanctions, investing in auto, diamond, tobacco and power-station projects.</p>
<p>In August, Zimbabwe said a Chinese company planned to invest up to $2 billion to revive operations at Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (ZISCO), which ceased production in 2008 at the height of an economic meltdown.</p>
<p>That year, China vetoed a proposed Western-backed U.N. resolution that would have imposed an arms embargo on Zimbabwe and financial and travel restrictions on Mugabe and 13 other officials, saying it would “complicate”, rather than ease, conflict.</p>
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<p class="Attribution_content_27_rw" data-reactid="52">Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Writing by Michael Martina; Editing by Robert Birsel</p>
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China says it respects Mugabe’s decision to resign

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<p>Former Zimbabwean finance minister, Tendai Biti joins CNBC Africa to speak on the issue of Zimbabwe introducing its own currency in bid to stave off a cash flow crisis.</p>


Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s economic situation “very difficult”: IMF mission chief

Zimbabwe could save SA from downgrade

Investors already knocking on Zimbabwe’s door

ANC helped prop up Mugabe’s govt past its sell-by date – Mangosuthu Buthelezi

Zimbabwe’s Mnangagwa to be sworn in as president on Friday

Alexander Forbes lays conditions to enable more investment in Zimbabwe

Has the resignation of Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe put SA’s downgrade on hold?

Rebuilding Zimbabwe: Mnangagwa needs to apologise for what he allowed to happen in Zimbabwe – Trevor Ncube

Media has an important role to play in Zimbabwe – Trevor Ncube

Rebuilding Zimbabwe: We stand on an opportunity to push the reset button – Trevor Ncube

This is how Zimbabwe can woo businesses – Trevor Ncube

Former FinMin Biti: What SA can learn from Zimbabwe

Explainer: Who is Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe’s next president?

Zimbabwe needs a stamp of approval from IMF – Former FinMin Biti

We need to keep our relationship with China but change it – Zimbabwe’s ex-FinMin

China says it respects Mugabe’s decision to resign

How Zimbabwe can fix its currency – Former FinMin Biti

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Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s economic situation “very difficult”: IMF mission chief

Zimbabwe could save SA from downgrade

Investors already knocking on Zimbabwe’s door

ANC helped prop up Mugabe’s govt past its sell-by date – Mangosuthu Buthelezi

Zimbabwe’s Mnangagwa to be sworn in as president on Friday

Alexander Forbes lays conditions to enable more investment in Zimbabwe

Has the resignation of Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe put SA’s downgrade on hold?

Rebuilding Zimbabwe: Mnangagwa needs to apologise for what he allowed to happen in Zimbabwe – Trevor Ncube

Media has an important role to play in Zimbabwe – Trevor Ncube

Rebuilding Zimbabwe: We stand on an opportunity to push the reset button – Trevor Ncube

This is how Zimbabwe can woo businesses – Trevor Ncube

Former FinMin Biti: What SA can learn from Zimbabwe

Explainer: Who is Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe’s next president?

Zimbabwe needs a stamp of approval from IMF – Former FinMin Biti

We need to keep our relationship with China but change it – Zimbabwe’s ex-FinMin

China says it respects Mugabe’s decision to resign

How Zimbabwe can fix its currency – Former FinMin Biti

News Tips

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