(HERALD) Auction of RBZ assets blocked

Auction of RBZ assets blocked
Herald Reporters

PRESIDENT Mugabe has invoked Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) to stop legal action aimed at attaching and auctioning of Rese-rve Bank of Zimbabwe assets.

The President invoked the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act to amend the Reserve Bank Act to allow all the central bank’s debts to be turned into State liability.

The notice to promulgate the regulations was contained in a Statutory Instrument published in an Extraordinary Government Gazette last Friday.

Last year, the High Court ordered that the bank’s property be attached after it failed to settle a US$2,1 million debt with Farmtec Spares and Implements.

The Gazette read: "The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Act [Chapter 22:15] (No. 5 of 1999) is amended by the insertion of the following section after Section 63A.

"63B Legal Proceedings Against Bank.

"The State Liabilities Act [Chapter 22:13] applies with necessary changes to legal proceedings against the bank, including the substitution of references therein to a minister by references to the Governor."

The new regulations will apply to proceedings against the RBZ that are pending on the date the regulations come into effect.

The regulations will be in force for six months during which Parliament should make the ame-ndments permanent.

As a result of the promulgation of the regulations, an auction of RBZ farming implements was halted at the last minute on Thursday in Bulawayo on the instructions of the Deputy Sheriff of Harare.

There has been rampant litigation against RBZ by individuals and companies aimed at looting the central bank’s assets under writs of execution.

It is estimated that assets worth millions of dollars were sold at ridiculous prices to settle the debts.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti told The Sunday Mail that Government had intervened in a bid to prevent "vultures" from stripping the central bank.

Minister Biti said Cabinet had agreed to stop the attachment and auctioning of RBZ assets with immediate effect.

"It has become clear that some individuals and companies are acting like vultures after buying the central bank’s assets for a song.

"The auctioning of the assets has given birth to vultures that are using writs of execution to acquire the property.

"There is nothing that can be gained from the writs of execution. People are stripping public assets," Minister Biti said.

He said the best option was to appoint a curator or judicial manager to manage the outstanding debts.

He described the auctioning of RBZ property as illegal saying it encouraged deception.




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