‘50 companies control Zim money’

Ndaka Majaka

THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe says it is investigating 50 companies which are manipulating the foreign currency exchange rate.

Central bank governor, Dr John Mangudya, said the RBZ was investigating company accounts, including those which were frozen recently, pointing out that these companies were driving the parallel market rate.

“50 percent of the deposits are owned by 50 corporates. This is 50 percent of
ZWL$ 19 billion. It is easy for us to monitor movements on those accounts…
“If left, they can cause suffering. We must not allow such a thing to happen. We are not targeting an individual, we are targeting those with energy to influence the market,” the central bank chief said.

This comes as the central bank’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) ordered banks across the country to freeze the accounts of some named entities a few weeks ago.

The FIU initially recommended that the RBZ freezes the accounts of Kuda Tagwirei’s Sakunda Holdings, Access Finance, Spartan Security and Croco Motors, amid reports of money laundering.

Another batch comprising of Bill Height Investments Private Limited, Landela Investments, Rimosa Trading (Pvt) Ltd, Fossil Agro (Pvt) Ltd and Traverze Travel (Pvt) Ltd were also fingered in the scandal by the FIU.

While the RBZ governor declined to name all the companies in question, he said the FIU would continue investigating.