Madam Deputy Speaker, the hon Gibson is obviously not short on melodrama. His question is about whether we are involved in planning a rescue operation, kind of "De la Rey, De la Rey, sal jy sommer Zimbabwe ook lei?" [De la Rey, De la Rey, will you come and lead Zimbabwe too?] That's the kind of question the hon Gibson is asking. Nothing quite as dramatic. There is work in progress.
The SADC Heads of State Summit met on 16-17 August 2007 and took account of the work already done by the executive secretariat and also work on the mediation which was requested by the political organ of SADC, and which is led by President Mbeki and seeks to mediate between the different political organisations, both parliamentary and nonparliamentary. The Ministers of Finance were then asked to take responsibility for some work in the arena of the economy. The leadership for this process would be by both the executive secretariat and the new Chair of the SADC Ministers of Finance, Minister Magande of Zambia. A task team has been set up, and the Ministers will meet in early November to take stock of the situation, by which time we should have an evaluation of the needs and demands of the situation but more importantly also, that over which Zimbabwe will want to take decisions in the short term.
The Deputy Speaker and hon members should be aware that just last week there was a very significant announcement in Parliament by the finance Minister of the devaluation of the Zim dollar that brings it much, much closer to black market rates now. But in terms of decisions about the currency in Zimbabwe that is quite unprecedented.
To get to the heart of your question, sir: Under what circumstances would government lend or give money? I think that the circumstances are well founded in section 213(2) of the Constitution. The Constitution is very clear about the fact that money may be withdrawn from the National Revenue Fund only in terms of an appropriation by this House. So, there is no ``under-the-table deal''; it has to be by an appropriation and, if needs be, by special appropriation, as we will undertake this afternoon. That would be the route. If there are other circumstances such as a guarantee issued by government that would have to be provided for in terms of section 218 of the Constitution.
Since these are constitutional dictates, there is no room to manoeuvre around them - government will have to comply with the letter and spirit of the Constitution before it can provide support to any country in any circumstances. [Interjections.]