has started has started repossessing some of the top range vehicles the
central bank donated to parastatals and several government departments in
the run-up to the 2008 March 29 and the ill-fated June 27 Presidential run
off.
Various government departments including the army, the notorious Central
Intelligence Organization, as well as the public media, Zanu (PF) and war
veterans were provided with vehicles by the RBZ and some of these were
allegedly used to commit acts of violence, murder and intimidation against
opposition supporters and officials.
Sources at the Central Bank said the Ministry of Media, Information and
Publicity and parastatals falling under it has become the first target of
the RBZ in its efforts to reclaim the donated vehicles in order to
replenish its dwindling resources.
The bank is now claiming that these vehicles were never donated but loaned
to the various government departments for the election period.
The RBZ still has the registration books of these vehicles and has refused
to surrender them to the beneficiaries," said a senior official at the
bank.
He said an Isuzu KB vehicle which was being used by the ZBC Masvingo Bureau
has already been recalled and over 20 other vehicles donated to the state
broadcaster are earmarked for repossession.
Last year, the RBZ demanded that ZBC surrenders the vehicles the bank
donated, but the corporation refused arguing that the vehicles were bought
using public funds.
The RBZ official said the information has become the first target of the
repossession exercise because of reports of allegations of widespread
abuse and disappearance of the vehicles.
"We have been told that one very senior official in the ministry has
diverted up to 10 vehicles which are now allegedly being used by his
girlfriends and at his farm," said the official.
" When the scandal was discovered, this official was given an option to buy
the vehicles at commercial rates, but he has failed to pay for them. Under
normal circumstances this person should have been arrested for fraud and
theft but the issue was swept under the carpet."
Another senior Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity official, Clyde
November alleged to be on the run after he was implicated in a scam where
top-of-the-range cars donated by the RBZ were sold using fake registration
papers.
The scam by November who was the director of Finance, human resources
and transport, exposes how corrupt officials benefited from vehicles that
were purchased by the RBZ and distributed to various government departments.
At ZBC it is alleged that some of the donated vehicles were diverted by
senior managers who fraudulently registered them in their names. A number of
senior state journalists have also benefited from the RBZ vehicles as a
reward for propping Zanu (Pf) .
Some of the state journalists who have been given top of the range RBZ
vehicles are ZBC's Reuben Barwe, Judith Makwanya and Tazzen Mandizvidza.
From the Zimpapers stable, Ceazer Zvayi, Munyaradzi Huni and Victoria
Ruzvidzo have also been rewarded with similar top of the range RBZ vehicles.
It is not yet clear whether these vehicles will also be recalled.
RBZ spokesperson Kumbirai Nhongo could not be reached for comment.
The RBZ was for several years involved in non-core activities such as
procurement and distribution of vehicles, tractors, inputs, groceries as
well as farming, housing and diesel production projects which the bank
sponsored through the printing of Zimdollars.
The bank also last year gave motor vehicles to parliamentarians but the
legislators are now refusing to return them.
The bank's non-core activities were blamed for fueling inflation which
rose to over 230
million percent at the height of the economic crisis in 2008.
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