Indigenisation and Empowerment minister Saviour Kasukuwere yesterday blamed economic sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union for the collapse of his business empire.
In an exclusive interview with the NewsDay at his ComOil office, Kasukuwere accused the US of withholding $1,5 million in his funds saying this had left a hole in his business.
He could, however, not quantify the financial costs of the sanctions on his net worth.
“I have a right to succeed and a right to fail,” he said.
Kasukuwere said the bad state of the economy was affecting every company and there was nothing special about challenges besetting his companies.
Turning to his shareholding, in the now defunct Genesis Investment Bank, he said he had disposed his shareholding to a “Zambian company” for $50 000 after it had become apparent the bank would struggle to remain afloat due to economic restrictions.
Kasukuwere said sanctions had created a negative perception on the bank, which in turn had dampened confidence in the financial institution. In 2002, Genesis inherited a bad book from the Trade and Investment Bank Limited, which it struggled to finance resulting in the financial institution being placed under curatorship for six months.
An official document seen by this paper shows that the Empowerment minister through his various companies, had over 10% stake in the investment bank as at March 31 2012.
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He argued that sanctions imposed on Zimre Holdings, the former institutional majority shareholders in Genesis, had crippled the bank’s capacity to raise capital offshore.
Genesis Bank was liquidated nearly a fortnight ago after shareholders failed to raise the minimum capital requirements prescribed by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
As at March, Genesis, according to official documents owed over $2,7 million dollars while its total outstanding deposits stood at over $600 000.
“Genesis was affected by sanctions because Zimre was under sanctions. So how did you expect it to survive?
“We now have to distance ourselves from our interests because of sanctions.
“Some are internal and others external so how do you survive,” Kasukuwere said.
“We also had UTC in Victoria Falls. It was affected by sanctions. You get each and every travel agency with a warning, you get money which is supposed to be transferred to the companies not transferred. “Here is a company which has gone under not because of mismanagement, but purely because of sanctions.
“We have had to scale down our operations and sent people home.
“ComOil used to import 20 million litres (of fuel) every two months or so, but we cannot import anymore, lines of credit have been cut. We are an example of how sanctions affect companies.” He, however, said his farming interests continued to be viable despite the sanctions.
Kasukuwere has interests in Mazowe Citrus, which at its peak supplied the bulk raw materials for companies such as Schweppes Zimbabwe Limited.
“We disinvested from Interfresh, but our operations are going on. We are exporting oranges,” he said.
The EU and US imposed sanctions on Zanu PF officials and companies linked to them over alleged gross human rights abuses in the country. Sanctions or otherwise?
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