South African banking giant Absa had repeatedly been alerted to irregularities and unexplained payments authorised by the Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe (CBZ) with which it exchanged financial vows in 1998.
Absa has a 26% controlling stake in CBZ, now known as Jewel Bank. The bank has been linked to Zimbabwe’s Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) takeover of three privately owned newspapers, the Financial Gazette, the Daily Mirror and the Sunday Mirror. The scheme was financed through slush funds which CBZ allegedly operated for the CIO and President Robert Mugabe. The activities took place under the watch of Gideon Gono, then CEO of the bank and now governor of the central bank.
The Mail & Guardian has learnt that the Absa appointed GM for credit and related risk, Tom van Heerden, clashed with Gono over ‘several irregular unsanctioned payments†during his tenure at CBZ from October 1998 to November 2000. He challenged Gono on authorising huge withdrawals to finance projects ‘without the necessary board approvalâ€, sources in the central bank told the M&G in Harare this week.
Van Heerden reportedly faxed copies of the alleged irregularities to Absa headquarters in Johannesburg.
Absa’s Africa relationship officer Helmi De Villiers said on Thursday that she was unable to respond since ‘all the people whom he reported to either no longer work for Absa or in this departmentâ€. Van Heerden himself retired a year after returning from Harare.
One of the CIO accounts at the CBZ, registered in the name of Sentry Investments, at one stage in 2001 had a balance of Z$3-billion, sources told the M&G. Funds from this account are believed to have funded the intelligence drive to own the three newspaper titles. ‘The Sentry account was operated by Gono himself with operational managers not having a say in how the monies were withdrawn or debited.â€
During the proceedings of the corruption trial of former finance minister Chris Kuruneri, an application by Kuruneri to gain access to the CBZ books was dropped after vice president Joyce Mujuru stepped in.
Another of the accounts run by Gono at CBZ was that of Mugabe and his wife, where investments attracted interests above the prevailing market rates, sources explained. ‘Often these deals were done at a loss to the CBZ.â€
In 2001 Gono sourced over $145 000 for Mugabe’s presidential trips from a local financial institution at an exchange rate of Z$100 to the greenback, then resold to the president’s office at Z$55, making a Z$45 loss on every dollar borrowed.
The central bank inspectorate, supervision and surveillance team raised problems around the accounting practices at CBZ during a routine probe in 2000. Of concern was that CBZ was not submitting monthly liquidity returns to the central bank. Gono, it is alleged, got the then governor of the bank, Leonard Tsumba, to intervene, citing ‘confidential intelligence operations that had to be protectedâ€.