We received this article from a senior banker at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, supporting his colleagues who are facing corruption allegations. We are withholding his name to protect his job (Please note the article was submitted before the RBZ announced they had been suspended):
By RBZ Employee | I CAN vouch 100 percent innocence for Mirirai Chiremba, Gresham Muradzikwa, Azvinandawa Saburi and Norman Mataruka, the four Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe directors accused of running a forex cartel. These are the stalwarts of uprightness in that institution – incorruptible, unmoved by threats and straight as a ruler.
There is a background to why all of them are being targeted. Saburi is head of forex allocations and won’t be intimidated if your paperwork is not sufficient. Your story must be tight, or you won’t get a cent. He does not work alone but chairs a very powerful committee.
Chiremba is head of anti-money laundering and again, a modest, but very intelligent and incorruptible gentlemen with a strong no-nonsense reputation locally, regionally and internationally. He has had running battles with the corrupt in this country and knows them all! It’s the same with Muradzikwa, hence both being targeted for removal.
Mataruka is head of bank supervision and is registrar of banks with powers to close banks. He is an International Monetary Fund country and regional expert whom the IMF assigns countries to go and inspect. He is the author of all reports and findings that led to the closure of all the banks that have been shut down since 2004.
Have we forgotten that only in 2005 Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube’s Barbican Bank was closed by the bank after depositors’ funds were determined to be at risk due to corporate failures there?
The new Permanent Secretary in the Finance Ministry George Guvamatanga has his own axe to grind. When Barclays were divesting from Zimbabwe, he wanted to launch a bid but felt let down by some people at the RBZ who did not enable proposal.
The strategy is to remove all long-serving stalwarts, including John Mangudya himself, so as to line up the bank with easily intimidated personnel that could be aligned one way or the other. Most of those so-called corrupt directors have served all three past governors. How come only now, their sins are seen?
It’s a typical case of a hyena accusing a flock of sheep for having caused the disappearance of goats. It’s transparent subterfuge.
There are real reasons for targeting all these stalwarts. If they have evidence, why not bring it out or call on Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate than use a tainted person to taint others? How come it’s Acie Lumumba announcing? To say that they are causing Ncube headaches is laughable. So early into Ncube’s term of office?
Why not go for the head of the bank, the governor, as these guys report to him?
Lumumba and his boss Ncube are on a trajectory of vendettas! This nation will burn if the truth is to come out. Whoever is behind it knows Chiremba, Muradzikwa, Saburi and Mataruka have intimate knowledge of all the dirt they have been up to. Why is Lumunba exonerating Mangudya yet he is head of the institution? How come Ncube hires this Lumumba to do pronouncements he himself ought to make?
It is public secret that Kuda Tagwirei, accused of running a fuel cartel with the help of the RBZ directors, is very close to Vice President Constantino Chiwenga than to President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Tagwirei will be caught in the cross-fire in order to tarnish him. He is a pawn.
But why hasn’t Ncube spoken about real, and obvious abuses like the Treasury Bills scandal and Command Agriculture? Why would a whole Minister of Finance hire a hooligan to tarnish his own institutions as if the law and labour regulations don’t provide him with remedies other than what he is doing?
Damaging the RBZ can’t be in anyone’s interests. It would be a very sad day if any of those four is removed. Very sad for this country.
source: RBZ Banker
