ONE issue that has received little attention is that of rogue bankers. They plundered funds, including savings from some of society’s poorest and retired citizens, in order to oil their expensive lifestyles. This happened between 2004 and 2008.
The government thinks it should be business as usual after a looting spree that flattened dozens of financial institutions, some of them listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. How shocking!
Some victims of the banking sector upheavals suffered painful deaths. They could not afford lifesaving drugs, or decent meals.
White collar thieves have benefitted from the patronage of a system that rewards theft and discourages enterprise. The gravity of their financial crimes can best be understood through the examples of behemoths that collapsed under pillage levels - the worst in this region.
The blue-chip Trust Banking Corporation Limited, Intermarket Holdings Limited, Time Bank Limited, Barbican Financial Holdings Limited, Royal Bank, Rapid Financial Holdings Limited, CFX Financial Holdings, Highveld Financial Services and Century Holdings Limited, Zimbabwe Allied Banking Group and Allied Bank were among those that crashed, wiping out billions.
In at least six of the major closed banks, up to 55 000 depositors lost US$186 million. Although the government tried to intervene, pay-outs announced after dollarisation were an insult to depositors.
Authorities buried their heads in the sand at the time, and they continue to do so 20 years later. Leaving them to live normal lives without being held to account is one serious miscarriage of justice the State has done. It is simply unacceptable.
After they fled, authorities gave them a greenlight to return in 2009.
- Inaugural Zim investor indaba highlights
- Stop clinging to decaying state firms
- ZB explores options to tackle inflation
- RBZ blocks Harare US dollar charges
Keep Reading
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) investigated and published extensive reports linking some of them to theft and serious governance deficiencies. Some spent money on fast cars, mansions and expensive holidays. They were heartless.
Government must explain why it allowed them to troop back without explanations. But if such explanations were made, they must be publicised.
Their actions created a market where people do not trust banks, and the currency. Zimbabweans are keeping their cash under pillows to avoid falling into the same trap. They now use their currency on a brutal black market, with firefighting authorities swinging from one-stop gap measure to another.
Last week, the new central bank governor John Mushayavanhu stepped into the infernos, with the country expecting so much from a structured currency that he announced.
It is one of many currencies Zimbabwe has had since 2003 - from agro-bonds and bills to bond notes and coins.
We cannot separate this crisis from a clique of people, who led to the collapse of 30 financial institutions. Banks are the bedrock on which economies run.
Today, a black market that transacts millions of US dollars holds sway. It is not surprising. As we reported in 2021, the some of the people, who destroyed banks are behind the black market.
They must be arrested. Their mansions, farms and fast cars must be hunted down wherever they are, sold, and the funds returned.
However, it is important to acknowledge that there were some like the First National Building Society shareholders, who insisted they were unfairly targeted by top officials at the RBZ.
If these and other bankers’ claims were true, we cannot paint them with the same brush.
But a huge chunk of the financial services sector cannot just go belly up and everyone is clean. It is just impossible.
This is why I was impressed by Clement Chiduwa, chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Budget, Finance and Investment Promotion’s suggestion that action must be taken.
“I am also proposing that going forward, the new law should bar directors, shareholders of failed banks from benefitting from their wrongdoing,” he told parliament recently. Let’s support him.
We cannot run a country of powerful lords who protect wrong doers, and pay a blind eye to genuine concerns from those whose wealth was wiped.
If President Emmerson Mnangagwa is serious about healing this nation, he must revisit the bank heist era and take action. If these people are clean, Zimbabwe deserves to know. But the President must tell us where our money went.
