Zimbabwe's public debt has ballooned by about $4bn in about eight months to $21bn, a development that has attracted fierce criticism from the opposition.

The southern African nation has defaulted since early 2000 as a result of economic difficulties.  It recently appointed African Development Bank (AfDB) president Akinwumi Adesina and former Mozambican president Joachim Chissano to assist it in engaging its creditors for a restructuring programme.

Due to Zimbabwe's failure to meet its debt obligations, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and other lenders have refused to extend more loans to the country.

New Zimbabwe cited an opposition member, Corban Madzivanyika, on September 15 castigating President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government for piling so much debt since December 2023.

"It is clear that the debt question has gone out of hand for Zimbabwe. Let us be honest with each other. Only last year, by December 2023, our debt position was $17bn, but it ballooned by more than $3bn to $21bn," Madzivanyika said.

He questioned a recent government investment of $1.9bn in the sovereign wealth fund and the acquisition of a 35% stake in the mining group Kuvimba for $1.6bn, suggesting that the company was overvalued. 

"Can you honestly tell me that those [six] companies [under Kuvimba] are worth $4.6bn? said Madzivanyika.

He asked the government to be more judicious in its management of the debt.

"We need to improve on how we handle the debt issue. There must be no borrowing and no guarantees without parliamentary approval," Madzivanyika noted.

Zimbabwean lender Time Bank has proposed a syndicated loan of $35bn to help the government liquidate its external debt and compensate former farmers whose land was expropriated over the past decades.

The bank, state-owned daily The Herald reported, said the loan would, among other obligations, pay the country's $20.4bn foreign debt, $7bn to Black farmers who lost their land without compensation before independence in 1980 and $3.5bn to White farmers whose land was expropriated over the past 24 years.