The government of Zimbabwe only has $217 in its public account after paying public workers last week, the country’s finance minister said.
Tendai Biti, the minister, told the BBC that he made that statement to point out that Zimbabwe cannot pay for elections, not that it was completely insolvent.
“You journalists are mischievous and malicious—the point I was making was that the Zimbabwean government doesn’t have the funds to finance the election, to finance the referendum,” he said.
“To dramatize the point, I simply made a passing reference metaphorically that when we paid civil servants last week on Thursday we were left with $217 ... but even the following day we had $30 million in our account.”
Zimbabwe’s elections agency has said that it needs just over $100 million to finance polls this year, reported the Guardian.
“The government has no money for elections. … We will be approaching the international community to assist us in this regard, but it’s important that government should also do something,” Biti added.
The economy in Zimbabwe hit rock bottom around a decade ago, after longtime President Robert Mugabe seized white-owned farms, which prompted international sanctions, damaged investor confidence, damaged tourism, and caused other economic problems.
