 Former tea boy Gideon Gono at the centre of a brewing storm. Guruve North MP David Butau has just added more teabags of controversy. Related Articles Business figures in Zimbabwe: Nehanda Radio
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18 January 2008
The following is a statement issued by Guruve North MP David Butau who recently fled to United Kingdom.
'After having made several attempts to bring the Governor of the Central Bank to explain to the Budget Committee, I took a risky decision of going it alone to expose, what I believed to be gross violation of trust placed upon the Governor by the head of state.
There were three very clear issues that seemed awkward namely;
1. Resignation of Premier Bank Chief Executive Office, Exodus Makumbe in very unclear circumstances.
2. Some illegal instructions from RBZ to heads of Banks not to reject so called Mechanization Funds that were meant to facilitate parallel market activities by both Premier Bank and Flatwater.
3. What appeared to be a club relationship between RBZ and a dubious tractor merchant called Michigan Tractors of South AFrica. The only way to establish facts was to infiltrate the intricate net of parallel market forex dealing.
Some staff at the RBZ and money laundering unit offered themselves for the sake of protecting the integrity of the head of state, the party and the government.
Joseph Manjoro came to my private office several times as we attempted to set up the transactions.
Towards the beginning of November 2007, we began what we all knew would be hazardous and possibly perilous road to stop the rot at the Central Bank.
Although we stumbled upon some dirty personal issues, I feel this should not be part of my business.
It is on the basis of those findings that I call upon the Authorities to:
1. Publish all transactions between RBZ and Premier Bank with an alternative to publish proper audited overnight cover provided by the Central Bank.
2. In what capacity did the Governor of the Central Bank offer on several occasions to rescue Premier Bank from liquidity problems.
3. Why were the police not called in to investigate the so called wrong doing of Exodus Makumbe, if they were indeed of criminal nature.
4. Zimbabwe has five major and well-established franchise holdings of the following brand of tractors:
a) Farmec - Massey Ferguson
b) Tarrys - Landini
c) Sabata - John Deere
d) Bain - New Holland
e) Tanaka - Renault
Zimbabwe is not under economic sanctions from any of these manufactures and merchants, so why did the RBZ in the name of some choose Michigan Tractors, which banks with Standard Bank of South Africa with a branch in Mafikan of all the major business links of South Africa.
Once again, if we were to do an introspection, one then says if all these decisions were taken in good faith, then the RBZ must out of obligation publish the methodology used in selecting Michigan Tractors for the country of more than USD 5 million, to sue tractors and other agricultural equipment (some of which would be imported from Zimbabwe and then re-exported on a higher margin).
On the same note, Michigan Tracors must explain why it makes payments on behalf of certain RBZ officials especially those that claim to be holier than all of us.
The receipt of Z$510 billion from RBZ via Flatwater was the clearest testimony that something was very wrong at the Central Bank. Although others may view this as source of blame worthiness on my part, I took the stupid risk because I knew it would unsettle the authorities at the Central Bank the moment they got wind of my involvement. RBZ gave Exchange Control Approval to Flatwater and Mr Musakwa is very aware of approval, which was purported to have been released to Flatwater becuase Flatwater claimed to have offshore free funds. Indeed at some point Musakwa influenced the release of Manjoro from Police custody.
The only certificate of clean hands the Governor can issue is to publish:
1) the invoices that it received from Flatwater and the amount of foreign exchange that it received against those
2) RBZ should ask Michigan tractors to publish the actual value it received from various sources who they went on to pay over and above the tractor and implement suppliers.
If these questions are answered, I will take the first plane home.'
David Butau (MP)
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