Zimbabwe’s central bank governor has admitted authorising a bank transfer by the country’s former finance minister who is on trial for corruption, a newspaper said on Saturday.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Gideon Gono, who is spearheading an anti-corruption drive, was speaking at the trial of Chris Kuruneri, accused of siphoning scarce foreign currency out of the country.
Relating the circumstances of the money transfer in the Harare High Court Friday, Gono said Kuruneri had actually saved the country from a ”national catastrophe”, the state-controlled Herald said.
Kuruneri is charged with illegally transferring R5,2-million out of the country between 2002 and 2004 through a local commercial bank, which Gono headed
before becoming central bank governor. Kuruneri denies any wrongdoing.
In his testimony on Friday, Gono said it was he who had asked Kuruneri to lend the commercial bank 500 000 dollars in 2002 in the national interest.
The bank later authorised the transfer of an equivalent sum in South African rands to Kuruneri’s accounts in South Africa, the Herald said.
”I requested the accused to assist as he had done on other previous occasions and circumstances involving national matters,” the Herald quoted Gono as saying.
”The bank that I had the privilege to lead was at the centre of rescue missions for this country,” he said.
The central bank chief added that he was bound under Zimbabwe’s official secrets act from revealing details of what Kuruneri’s money was used for.
The former finance minister, who has been in jail for more than a year, also denies charges of smuggling more than 500 000 dollars, 34 000 British pounds and 30 000 euros through Harare International Airport between 2002 and 2004.
He says he bought a house and a luxury car in South Africa with money he earned outside the country before he became minister.
Zimbabwe is critically short of foreign currency needed to purchase fuel, medicine and food. – Sapa-DPA