Zimbabwe’s finance minister has denied claims that he violated Zimbabwe’s currency laws when buying a seaside mansion in Cape Town, countering allegations in South Africa media that the real estate deal was illegal, a government newspaper reported on Thursday.
Media reports in South Africa alleged that Finance Minister Chris Kuruneri may have violated foreign currency laws set by his own government when buying the property.
Kuruneri defended the deal in comments published in the state-run Herald newspaper, which is considered the Zimbabwean government’s mouthpiece, saying he did not break any laws and instead bought the property with hard currrency earned for business consultancy work outside Zimbabwe before he was appointed a minister.
Under the currency laws, money earned outside the country does not have to be repatriated.
The government of President Robert Mugabe has said it is carrying out a crackdown on high-level corruption within the government. The central bank began introducing new financial measures in December that it said aimed to fight corruption and black marketeering.
The government also has targeted some businessmen in its anti-corruption crackdown and arrested several for alleged violations of Zimbabwe’s currency laws.
”It is clear I have not been in violation of any Zimbabwean laws,” Kuruneri told the Herald. He also said the mansion he is building in a Cape Town suburb was expected to cost R7-million and not R30-million as reported by some South African media.
The Sunday Times in South Africa reported on Sunday that Kuruneri has been visiting Cape Town secretly to oversee construction of the mansion and has been paying cash for the project despite strict rules that limit the export of foreign currency from Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe is suffering its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1980, with record inflation and unemployment and a thriving black market in hard currency, gasoline, food and other essential goods.
According to official estimates, 70% of Zimbabwe’s 12,5-million people are living in poverty.
After Mugabe issued a decree on February 17 allowing for the detention without bail for 28 days of suspects accused of some political and economic crimes, directors from a leading private bank and a savings and loan company fled to Britain.
James Mushore and Julius Makoni, directors of the National Merchant Bank, denied breaching currency laws and said they were willing to cooperate with investigations into the operations of the bank.
But, in a statement, they said Mugabe’s decree was in breach of constitutional rights to liberty while investigations were being carried out.
The decree allows for detention for up to seven days before investigators are required to produce any evidence.
Bank executives have accused police and Finance Ministry officials of targeting individual businessmen for investigation while overlooking graft and currency allegations leveled against ruling-party leaders and their associates.
The reports of Kuruneri’s Cape Town property have been the talk of Harare’s business and social circuit this week. — Sapa-AP