THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has published its creditors’ list on Parliament’s Order Paper and left out the much-sought-after debtors’ list which opposition MPs have recently been demanding before they could pass the controversial RBZ (Debt Assumption) Bill.
BY VENERANDA LANGA
The Bill is currently at the Committee Reading Stage, and last week it was halted after MDC-T chief whip Innocent Gonese demanded that MPs who benefited from the RBZ farm mechanisation scheme be precluded from voting to pass the Bill.
Zanu PF MPs, however, fiercely resisted calls for the RBZ debtors to be made public.
Gonese yesterday told NewsDay that although they welcomed publication of the creditors’ names, his party would continue to fight for the central bank debtors to be named.
“We saw the list of creditors, but we are saying the debtors must also be disclosed and we will continue to fight tooth and nail in the House to ensure that their names (RBZ debtors) are also published,” Gonese said.
“The list of debtors is necessary for accountability purposes because the people of Zimbabwe are going to assume the debt and they need to know before the Bill is passed who the beneficiaries were, and who was part and parcel of the RBZ debt because the country is in dire straits and we need those people who contributed to the debt to be known so that they can be made to account and pay.”
Opposition parties said they suspect that their Zanu PF counterparts directly benefited from the $1,35 billion RBZ debt which government now seeks to assume in toto to allow the central bank to start on a clean state.
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Zanu PF legislators have reportedly been inviting their MDC-T counterparts to private meetings in a bid to persuade them to “absolve resettled farmers from paying for the agricultural implements they received from the central bank”.
Some of the creditors listed include farmers and top government officials who have not yet been paid for wheat and tobacco deliveries made between 2007 and 2009.
They include former Minister of State for Presidential Affairs Flora Buka, Sports minister Andrew Langa and Primary and Secondary Education minister Lazarus Dokora.
The Reserve Bank of Malawi is also owed $16 762 859 for maize imports.
