Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

The IMF has called on Tendai Biti to budget for the Reserve Bank after the Bretton Woods Institution uncovered scandalous theft of statutory reserve money by the Central Bank to continue funding quasi-fiscal operations this year. Books at the Central bank have also been cooked to allow for the dispersal of money belonging to banks to fund foreign trips by government officials and certain well-known shoppers at taxpayers' expense. Gono did not seek or get approval from Biti for this shady behaviour. He acted like he was the Finance Minister Harare, Zimbabwe, 30 October 2009 We revealed on this blog a little while back that Mugabe had given Gideon Gono widespread ministerial powers and that the MDC-T were aware of this fact. The IMF, after an audit of the Reserve Bank, has effectively confirmed our story, revealing that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe continues to steal funds its custody and using these to continue quasi-fiscal operations. The Central has been taking money belonging to...

Harare, Zimbabwe, 24 September 2009 I was rather shocked today to be told that the MDC's Tendai Biti has decided to launch an investigation into allegations that Gideon Gono of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is printing fake US dollars! The allegations first surfaced after a man was arrested in Houghton Park, a middle-income suburb of Harare as he attempted to buy goods using the fake foreign currency. He told the till operators serving him that he believed the money to be genuine because he had got it from someone who works at the Reserve Bank. In fact, there have been four separate arrests, as far I hear, all of which resulted in the culprit just being let out of the jail with no charges preferred. Fake US Dollar and South African Rand notes are being presented all over Harare and other cities in Zimbabwe. The upsurge in fake notes has seen almost every denomination of the US dollar and especially the South African R500 (five hundred Rand) being faked and circulated widely. Zimbab...