The Zanu-PF Youth league yesterday threatened to descend on foreign-owned shops allegedly involved in siphoning hard foreign currency out of the country resulting in severe economic stress.
The ruling party’s Secretary for Youths, Pupurai Togarepi accused foreign-owned businesses of starving local banks of the much-needed cash due to their corrupt dealings.
“There are foreigners doing business in the downtown area who are not banking money to local banks. We are going to demand that they bank their money because they are milking all our foreign currency and are putting it on the black market.
“We suspect that several of them are taking the money to several countries. These people are not accepting Ecocash transfers neither are they accepting our bond notes. They are demanding payments in US Dollars and they are not doing business in a transparent and professional way.
“They are the same people involved in money laundering because they don’t even have bank accounts,” he noted.
“So after consulting with the Harare Province Chairperson (Godwin Gomwe), we have decided that we will confront these foreign-owned businesses and demand that they show us their bank accounts. Those without bank accounts will be chased back to their countries,” Togarepi added.
He made reference to some transport operators whom he said risk losing their licenses should they continue with their trends.
“There are people who own commuter omnibuses written ‘GOD GIVEN’, those ones do not own a single bank account but they demand hard currency yet they do not bank with the local banks. Those are the people who are fueling the cash crisis and we are going after them,” warned the youth league’s boss.
Zimbabwe has been facing acute cash shortages resulting in the re-emergence of the black market where both the local bond notes and United States dollars are flooded and selling for a premium.
Early this year, President Emmerson Mnangagwa issued a moratorium against companies and individuals fingered in money laundering and externalization of foreign currency.
