Zimbabwe Asks for $2B Amid More Political Problems

A four-year-old girl scrapes food from a saucepan while her siblings looks on outside of their shack...

A four-year-old girl scrapes food from a saucepan while her siblings looks on outside of their shack on February 25, 2009 in a slum on the outskirts of Harare. South Africa's finance minister says Zimbabwe has asked for $2 billion dollars to salvage its collapsed economy and infrastructure.

(Desmond Kwande/AFP/Getty Images)

President Robert Mugabe in a published interview rejected demands that he should dismiss two discredited officials, while the Zimbabwean government on Thursday asked its neighbors for a $2 billion loan package to aid its collapsed economy.

In the interview with the state Herald newspaper to mark his 85th birthday, Mugabe refused to cede to demands by the Movement for Democratic Change to dismiss central bank governor Gideon Gono and attorney general Johannes Tomana.

"I don't see any reason why those people should go and they will not go," Mugabe said in the interview. Gono is widely blamed for Zimbabwe's economic meltdown and hyperinflation of 231 million percent, and Tomana stands accused of blocking the release of political prisoners.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe's request for a $2 billion loan to salvage its collapsed economy and infrastructure was expected to dominate a two-day conference of the 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Cape Town, South Africa.

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South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel told South African radio that Zimbabwe wanted about $1 billion to kickstart retail and other sectors, and the rest to help reopen schools and restore health and municipal services.

An estimated two-thirds of Zimbabweans are in need of food aid and a cholera epidemic has sickened more than 80,000 people and killed more than 3,800 since August.

But South Africa has only limited resources to help its troubled neighbor, as it is heading into recession. Other southern African countries are also reeling from the global economic downturn, and there is skepticism about how Zimbabwe would use the money.

The head of the African Development Bank, Donald Kaberuka, said Zimbabwe also must settle its existing debt before it could expect huge foreign aid.

"It is important not to jump off the bridge before there is enough water under it," he told reporters in Cape Town. He said Harare owed the African Development Bank nearly $460 million. "That has to be fixed before we do anything else," he said.