AFRICA/SOUTH AFRICA - Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference welcomes G8 promise to cancel debts of poor countries

Pretoria (Fides Service)- Commenting on the latest move by the G8 countries, the spokesperson for the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference SACBC, Archbishop Buti Tlhagale said, “Debt cancellation is a response to the pressure brought to bear on governments by many non-governmental organisations such as ‘Jubilee’. The Debt cancellation must be accompanied by a commitment by the Governments of countries that have benefited from the debt cancellation to transparent and accountable governance and the eradication of corruption and graft”.
SACBC welcomed the resolve by the G8 countries to cancel debts to 18 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) to the value of US$40billion with immediate effect. The countries which will benefit from this debt cancellation are: Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Honduras, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The G8 agreement will mean that for a total of 40 countries 55 billion dollars will be cancelled: 40 immediately followed by another 15 billion.
At the beginning of 2005, the SACBC issued a statement that, “the first step on the road to overcoming poverty must be a decisive debt cancellation for poor countries. With many promises of debt relief made before by world leaders people can be forgiven for believing that debt burden has been lifted from the poor of the world. However poor countries continue to pay $100 million dollars a day in debt repayment”
(L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 27/6/2005 righe parole)