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Zim finance minister arrested for corruption
Zimbabwe's Finance Minister Chris Kuruneri was arrested for violating currency laws, becoming the first senior government official to be jailed under President Robert Mugabe's crackdown on corruption. Kuruneri, 54, was arrested in Harare for "externalising foreign currency" -- one million US dollars, 100,000 British pounds and 300,000 South African rand -- over the past two years, police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena told AFP.
ESTEEMED SIR,
YOU ARE PROBABLY SURPRISED TO RECEIVE THIS COMMUNICATION FROM ME. ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF. I AM CHRIS KURUNERI, FINANCE MINISTER OF ZIMBABWE... |
But he said it was not clear whether Kuruneri had siphoned the money out of the country or had failed to repatriate the funds to Zimbabwe in line with the strict laws governing the country's scarce hard currency flow. "We have arrested the minister of finance under the Exchange Control and Regulations Act for externalising foreign currency, believed to have occurred between March 2002 and March 2004," Bvudzijena told AFP. "It is believed most of the money was destined for South Africa," he added. Kuruneri was last month reported by South African media to be building an eight-bedroom mansion in a plush suburb of Cape Town. Kuruneri is also being investigated for breaching citizenship laws that prohibit dual citizenship, Bvudizjena said. Kuruneri reportedly holds Canadian and Zimbabwean passports. Mugabe launched a nationwide anti-corruption drive early this year, appointing a special minister responsible for overseeing the campaign which he described as "an internal war to fight the evils within our system." So far two senior officials from the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) have been arrested in addition to several business people.
Posted by: Fred 2004-04-24 |
