SA gives Liberia R26m
08/03/2007 22:23  - (SA)  

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Shaun Benton

Cape Town - South Africa (SA) is contributing $3.6m (about R26.28m) to help Liberia clear its debt with the African Development Bank.

Cabinet approved a request from the African Development Bank for SA to contribute to clearing Liberia's unpaid debt, government spokesperson Themba Maseko told BuaNews on Thursday.

Support for the settlement of Liberia's debt to the African Development Bank comes in the wake of recent signs of recovery in the Liberian economy, which deteriorated during and following the civil war there in 1989.

However, when President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf - Africa's first woman president - was elected in 2005, the west African country's economy showed real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 5.3% that year, said Maseko.

In addition growth GDP was projected at 7.7% in 2006/07.

Maseko said: "The R26.28m that SA is contribution to Liberia is 6.25% of the amount requested from bilateral donors to clear of Liberia's unpaid debt to the African Development Bank."

This amount will be drawn from the National Treasury's 2006/'07 budget for fiscal transfers.

Several African countries are making contributions to assist the newly-fledged democracy settle its debt, and this was SA's contribution.

Ghana congratulated

Also on the international front, Cabinet has congratulated the people of Ghana on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the country's independence.

Ghana became the first country south of the Sahara to celebrate independence under the stewardship of Kwame Nkrumah on March 6 1957.

President Thabo Mbeki and Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma were in Ghana on Tuesday to represent SA at the historic anniversary celebrations.

Maseko said: "Ghana's independence was a historic milestone in the rebirth of Africa and played a seminal role in the anti-colonial struggles of many countries in the continent, including SA's struggle for liberation."

"Kwame Nkrumah's declaration that 'the independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked to the total liberation of the African continent', is a message of African unity with enduring relevance."

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