Parly summons Gono over Mawere
Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono and the Secretary for Home Affairs, Melusi Machiya, have been summoned to appear before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy on Monday to explain issues relating to the specification of business tycoon Mutumwa Mawere.
Committee chairman Edward Chindori-Chininga said the two were yet to confirm their attendance.
“The committee resolved that they wanted to hear from the Governor and the Permanent Secretary of Home Affairs on the issues to do with the specification of Mawere and his companies being declared insolvent,” said Chindori-Chininga.
“Both have made submissions about SMM (Shabanie Mashaba Mines) issues but we want to hear from them exactly what transpired.” Chindori-Chininga said they wanted Gono to explain Mawere’s indebtedness, allegations of externalisation of money, investor confidence, and whether there was conflict of interest involving Afaras Gwaradzimba, administrator for SMM, among other issues.
In 2009, Gono submitted an advisory to President Robert Mugabe recommending the way forward in the SMM issue.
In the advisory, Gono revealed to President Mugabe the liabilities of SMM Holdings, which owed the RBZ, Zesa, MMCZ and NSSA at the time the Reconstruction Act was administered on the asbestos mines, did not qualify as state loans.
“Whilst they could be linked to the state indirectly by extrapolation, they were nevertheless still debts between SMM as a legal entity and each one of these institutions in their own right as creatures of statutes, and not directly the state,” Gono said.
Gono further said: “In other words, the parastatals and the Reserve Bank are at law separate legal persons who can borrow, lend, sue and can be sued independent of the state. In the SMM case these were not done, but rather the state spontaneously took over the matter and declared that it was owed money by SMM and had to apply reconstruction orders.”
Gono also said the state had failed to provide evidence of the contracts entered between the state and SMM when negotiating the loans, making the application of the reconstruction laws on SMM inappropriate.
He said the state also failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Mawere had banked offshore with the express intention never to repatriate back to Zimbabwe.
“In the SMM case, the RBZ is happy to drop any exchange control-related charges in light of the evidence at hand,” said Gono.
He also said Gwaradzimba was the former auditor of SMM, making him the least qualified to vilify SMM financial systems and try to reconstruct the financial fortunes of the company.
“The committee resolved that they wanted to hear from the Governor and the Permanent Secretary of Home Affairs on the issues to do with the specification of Mawere and his companies being declared insolvent,” said Chindori-Chininga.
“Both have made submissions about SMM (Shabanie Mashaba Mines) issues but we want to hear from them exactly what transpired.” Chindori-Chininga said they wanted Gono to explain Mawere’s indebtedness, allegations of externalisation of money, investor confidence, and whether there was conflict of interest involving Afaras Gwaradzimba, administrator for SMM, among other issues.
In 2009, Gono submitted an advisory to President Robert Mugabe recommending the way forward in the SMM issue.
In the advisory, Gono revealed to President Mugabe the liabilities of SMM Holdings, which owed the RBZ, Zesa, MMCZ and NSSA at the time the Reconstruction Act was administered on the asbestos mines, did not qualify as state loans.
“Whilst they could be linked to the state indirectly by extrapolation, they were nevertheless still debts between SMM as a legal entity and each one of these institutions in their own right as creatures of statutes, and not directly the state,” Gono said.
Gono further said: “In other words, the parastatals and the Reserve Bank are at law separate legal persons who can borrow, lend, sue and can be sued independent of the state. In the SMM case these were not done, but rather the state spontaneously took over the matter and declared that it was owed money by SMM and had to apply reconstruction orders.”
Gono also said the state had failed to provide evidence of the contracts entered between the state and SMM when negotiating the loans, making the application of the reconstruction laws on SMM inappropriate.
He said the state also failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Mawere had banked offshore with the express intention never to repatriate back to Zimbabwe.
“In the SMM case, the RBZ is happy to drop any exchange control-related charges in light of the evidence at hand,” said Gono.
He also said Gwaradzimba was the former auditor of SMM, making him the least qualified to vilify SMM financial systems and try to reconstruct the financial fortunes of the company.
