Chris Muronzi
3 March 2011
TOP Zanu PF officials this week summoned bank executives and coerced them to support the party’s anti-sanctions crusade that was launched by President Robert Mugabe in the capital on Wednesday.
Banking sources told the Zimbabwe Independent this week that Vice President John Nkomo pic, Presidential Affairs minister and Zanu PF secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa, Media and Information minister Webster Shamu, and party spokesperson Rugare Gumbo summoned bank executives to an urgent meeting on Tuesday to rally all bank CEOs against sanctions.
All CEOs of Zimbabwe’s financial services firms attended the meeting, a source said.
At the meeting, the executives are said to have been bullied into supporting Zanu PF’s anti-sanctions drive.
Bankers Association of Zimbabwe president John Mushayavanhu confirmed the top Zanu PF and government officials — Nkomo, Shamu, Gumbo and Mutasa — called an hour- long meeting on Tuesday at FBC Holdings’ Nelson Mandela headquarters.
Mushayavanhu said: “We had a meeting over sanctions where they were just saying there was going to be a launch and wanted us to attend if we were free. We agreed with them that sanctions were not good for the country. They requested a meeting and we agreed to meet.”
After the meeting, sources say banks were asked to contribute US$16 000 for printing of anti-sanctions campaign T-Shirts, a charge Mushayavanhu refuted.
Mushayavanhu said: “We were not asked to pay any amount. They just mentioned that the campaign would obviously cost money and they would appreciate any kind of help.”
In the same meeting, the executives were also asked to extend the anti-sanctions crusade to radio and television in the coming weeks as Zanu PF attempts to rally business behind its anti-embargo crusade.
According to sources, the bankers were not given much choice and agreed to Nkomo, Mutasa, Shamu and Gumbo’s orders.
This comes after Defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa last month threatened to seize a 90% stake in foreign businesses that did not demonise sanctions on radio and television.
Some local business leaders have already begun singing from the same song sheet as Zanu PF.
At the Zanu PF organised rally on Wednesday, Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries president Joseph Kanyekanye spoke against sanctions.
Kanyakanye said: “I have come voluntarily to say no to sanctions. It is part of our 2010 resolutions where more than 300 businesspeople said sanctions are not appropriate for Zimbabwe.
“We believe that sanctions have nothing to do with the human rights situation obtaining in the country. We have a situation where we have ZDERA (Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act), which we are having problems with as the business community.
“This law empowers the US Secretary for the Treasury to direct any US executive director sitting on international financial institutions to vote against extension of loans to Zimbabwe and to vote against cancellation or reduction of debt owed by Zimbabwe.
“As Zimbabweans, we must fight the sanctions and as CZI we had already taken a position a year ago because they have caused unnecessary disunity in the country.”
Efforts to reach the CZI president after the event to ascertain the business group’s position on President Robert Mugabe’s takeover threats proved fruitless as his mobile phone was switched off.
But Kanyekanye had on Wednesday said political leaders had to stop politicking and attack the embargo. This, analysts say, was in reference to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s no show at the sanctions ceremony attended by mainly Zanu PF supporters.
TA boss Shingi Mutasa also called for the removal of sanctions at an economic symposium in the capital recently.
Mugabe launched his anti-sanctions campaign on Wednesday and threatened to seize foreign companies.
Mugabe, the Zanu PF leadership and a multitude of supporters who attended the meeting appended their signatures to what the party said was an anti-sanctions petition.
The United States and European Union imposed sanctions on Zanu PF officials and froze their assets held abroad after the party launched a violent campaign in the 2002 presidential polls observers said were not free and fair.
But Zanu PF contends the US and EU imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe and its leaders to punish them for resettling landless blacks.
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Continued here:
Zimbabwe: Ruling Parry Coerces Bankers Over Sanctions