News / National
Over $500k Zimbabwe Aids Network funds used to fund Mugabe's 2008 election campaign
06 Dec 2011 at 08:29hrs | Views
According to reports by a local newspaper on Tuesday, Zimbabwe rights groups are accusing the country's central bank, RBZ of taking money belonging to the Zimbabwe Aids Network (ZAN) in March 2008 to fund President Robert Mugabe's election campaign.
ZAN claims it lost over half a million dollars, money meant for Aids patients, in March 2008 when the central bank raided their account.
According to ZAN, the RBZ could not spare a thought for those suffering from the deadly HIV/Aids disease and allegedly channeled the money towards Mugabe's campaigns.
Ironically, Mugabe's Zanu PF party went on to lose to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, but failed to garner enough votes to claim presidency.
Mugabe went on to claim victory in a one-man election run-off which was boycotted by Tsvangirai following extreme violence against his supporters. The MDC says at least 200 of its supporters died during the violence.
The 2008 run-off was marred by state-sponsored violence, forcing Tsvangirai to pull off the race citing persecution of his supporters.
But the international community, the African Union (AU) and Sadc all roundly condemned the elections and AU, through Sadc, forced Tsvangirai and Mugabe to enter into an inclusive government.
During this period, the RBZ took money from private accounts to fund quasi-fiscal activities including sponsoring Zanu PF and this was widely blamed for precipitating the fall of the economy.
ZAN said reports showed that the RBZ used some of the money to buy vehicles used in Mugabe's presidential election run-off campaign.
The government comptroller-general's office has since produced a report saying most of the vehicles remain unaccounted for including the CAM version and Mahindra.
"As a result of poor record keeping, I was not able to trace the movement of 19 vehicles transferred from Head Office to Harare province. The 19 vehicles were also not recorded at the provincial office," said the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) in his report on the management of government vehicles.
According to the 2008 CAG report, 15 of the 68 Mahindra vehicles were unaccounted for.
The Mahindra trucks became popular in Zimbabwe towards the June 2008 presidential run-off as they were the one mainly used by Zanu PF to carry its militia in a spate of violence that characterised the presidential campaign.
According to ZAN, the organisation's account had a balance of $1 105 071 when the RBZ directed Standard Chartered to transfer the funds to the RBZ.
ZAN is not the only organisation that lost money to the RBZ during this period.
Several organisations, mainly, civic organisations had their accounts raided as the country tried to raise foreign currency.
RBZ governor Gideon Gono was not available for comment with personnel at his office saying he was out of the country.
Gono, a close Mugabe confidant said in a US leaked cable that the RBZ printed money to fund Mugabe's election campaign. - Additional reporting Legal Monitor
ZAN claims it lost over half a million dollars, money meant for Aids patients, in March 2008 when the central bank raided their account.
According to ZAN, the RBZ could not spare a thought for those suffering from the deadly HIV/Aids disease and allegedly channeled the money towards Mugabe's campaigns.
Ironically, Mugabe's Zanu PF party went on to lose to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, but failed to garner enough votes to claim presidency.
Mugabe went on to claim victory in a one-man election run-off which was boycotted by Tsvangirai following extreme violence against his supporters. The MDC says at least 200 of its supporters died during the violence.
The 2008 run-off was marred by state-sponsored violence, forcing Tsvangirai to pull off the race citing persecution of his supporters.
But the international community, the African Union (AU) and Sadc all roundly condemned the elections and AU, through Sadc, forced Tsvangirai and Mugabe to enter into an inclusive government.
During this period, the RBZ took money from private accounts to fund quasi-fiscal activities including sponsoring Zanu PF and this was widely blamed for precipitating the fall of the economy.
ZAN said reports showed that the RBZ used some of the money to buy vehicles used in Mugabe's presidential election run-off campaign.
"As a result of poor record keeping, I was not able to trace the movement of 19 vehicles transferred from Head Office to Harare province. The 19 vehicles were also not recorded at the provincial office," said the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) in his report on the management of government vehicles.
According to the 2008 CAG report, 15 of the 68 Mahindra vehicles were unaccounted for.
The Mahindra trucks became popular in Zimbabwe towards the June 2008 presidential run-off as they were the one mainly used by Zanu PF to carry its militia in a spate of violence that characterised the presidential campaign.
According to ZAN, the organisation's account had a balance of $1 105 071 when the RBZ directed Standard Chartered to transfer the funds to the RBZ.
ZAN is not the only organisation that lost money to the RBZ during this period.
Several organisations, mainly, civic organisations had their accounts raided as the country tried to raise foreign currency.
RBZ governor Gideon Gono was not available for comment with personnel at his office saying he was out of the country.
Gono, a close Mugabe confidant said in a US leaked cable that the RBZ printed money to fund Mugabe's election campaign. - Additional reporting Legal Monitor
Source - Daily News
