Top level profiteering
Via our email inbox:
As a businessman in Zimbabwe I am forced, along with my colleagues, to acquire scarce foreign currency from the unofficial market. It is not available through the banks. The official Rate of Exchange for the US dollar is 250:1 but right now we are being forced to pay as much as 56 000:1, a difference of monumental proportions to say the least.
Recently we discovered that one of our payments was held up so we followed procedure and investigated.
The facilitator eventually identified the other company, Parlovan, from whom they had bought the funds for us.
Then matters worsened and still no money had been sent to our supplier despite the fact that some weeks previously we had paid our Zim Dollars.
Finally it was revealed that none other than Solomon Majuru, the Vice President’s husband, was the owner of the company and he was personally involved in the deal. There were “delays” as they had to pay for fuel!!!!!!
One wonders how he acquires huge volumes of such a short commodity and does he secure it from the Reserve Bank at 250:1?????
This is surely pillaging and profiteering at its worst and no wonder the government continues to hold the rate of exchange in an inflation environment of over 4 000 percent. The system of patronage, to maintain power and the “loyalty” of the ruling elite, has simply run out of farms and have now resorted to Forex.
