SW Radio Africa (London)
Alex Bell
2 June 2011
Finance Minister Tendai Biti has reportedly rejected an offer by a notorious ‘loan shark’ to bail out the bankrupt Air Zimbabwe, saying it will happen “over my dead body.”
Controversial business and property magnate Nicholas van Hoogstraten has said he is prepared to step in to save Air Zimbabwe from collapse, revealing last week that has previously extended “small short term emergency loans” to the airline at no interest. He said that AirZim is now seeking US$2 million to pay off the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
IATA has suspended the cash-strapped airline over a US$280,000 debt which it insists must be paid, on top of a US$1.7 million penalty fee, before the AirZim suspension can be lifted.
Hoogstraten said:; “It is correct that I have been asked by Air Zimbabwe’s London office for a US$2 million loan which I have agreed to – subject to Minister Biti personally signing the acknowledgment of debt agreement.”
But Biti has now reportedly shunned this offer, saying the airline was at the mercy of “loan sharks.”
“As long as I live, this government will not borrow money from any individual, and that includes Mr Van Hoogstraten,” Biti is quoted by the New Zimbabwe website as saying.
“For all I care, Mr Van Hoogstraten can go and throw himself in the River Thames but we will not sanitise his nefarious activities. Let him try his luck elsewhere, not from this ministry. Over my dead body!”
Van Hoogstraten divides most of his time between the UK and Zimbabwe, where he owns more than a million acres of land and 600 buildings in Harare and Bulawayo. The multi millionaire also has a controversial background. In 1968 he was convicted, and sent to prison, for paying a gang to attack a business associate. And then in 2002 he was sentenced to 10 years for the manslaughter of a business rival. The verdict was overturned on appeal and he was subsequently released.
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