I think the question on the Question Paper is about direct governmental assistance. In respect of the Reserve Bank, Madam Deputy Speaker, there is an arrangement. I think it was in 1965, at the time of UDI or the Unilateral Declaration of Independence, when an arrangement was struck between the then Rhodesian government and the SA Reserve Bank which provided for a credit facility in the Reserve Bank which was backed by Land Bank bills. The same facility has been rolled over and in about 1987 it was reopened. We were advised by the Reserve Bank that the guarantee facility isn't even fully drawn down upon as we speak.
So, it's a facility that central banks around the world have for those kinds of arrangements. Central banks around the world have to have places where they invest reserves and then negotiate these deals between central banks. There doesn't have to be the same kind of public accountability for how they invest and where they invest them. The world knows, for instance, that the People's Bank of China has invested $1,3 trillion in the US. It's just the way in which the world works.
In respect of other state-owned enterprises, they are again our credit facilities, and this would apply in the current milieu primarily to an agency like Eskom that traditionally has sold electricity. From time to time there would be debates about a settlement. There has never been a refusal to settlement. There will be queries about the amounts in particular bills.
I know that, in reply to another question from the hon Gibson, the amount of R2,2 million that is being debated was given a lot of attention by some journalists. But on the larger scale of things, in bilateral relations R2,2 million is a rounding error. I think that Eskom would say what the Reserve Bank would say there has never been reluctance. The commitment of the government and people of Zimbabwe to meet their obligation is actually incredibly strong. We were all taken by surprise in late October 2005 when Governor Gono of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe decided to pay the IMF an amount of $178 million. They take these things quite seriously because they know that there might have to be a call tomorrow again.