Categories: Stories

Zimbabwe’s US$7 billion question

Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption chair Loice Matanda-Moyo says some US$7 billion worth of properties and cash have been stashed away by Zimbabwean leaders and individuals in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, United States of America, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Mauritius and Spain.

This is more than double the country’s budget for this year.

“Informally, we have now identified US$7 billion cash and property all over the world which were siphoned by our former and current leaders including private individuals. We got this information informally. So, now we have to formalise the process so that we start the processes of repatriating the monies back home,” she said.

The anti-corruption boss has vowed to recover as much of this money as possible saying ZACC will initiate the process of repatriating the monies back once the paper work is in order.

When President Emmerson Mnangagwa came to power in November 2017, he gave an amnesty to all those who had externalized money to repatriate it.

At the time, he said US$1.4 billion had been externalized.

Some US$850 million was recovered leaving a balance of US$550 million.

So did Mnangagwa underestimate the amount that had been externalized?

Or was the U$7 billion externalized after the coming in of the second republic?

Zimbabwe is currently under US and UK sanctions, which include asset freezes of designated individuals, especially senior members of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front.

It is therefore not clear why their assets were not frozen if they are among those alleged to have externalized he cash and properties.

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Charles Rukuni

The Insider is a political and business bulletin about Zimbabwe, edited by Charles Rukuni. Founded in 1990, it was a printed 12-page subscription only newsletter until 2003 when Zimbabwe's hyper-inflation made it impossible to continue printing.

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