Zimbabwe citizens warned over illegal funds abroad

Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa said on Monday less than half of the money estimated to be stashed abroad by individuals and firms had been returned.

The new president said in a statement that out of the $1.42 billion estimated to be illegally kept outside Zimbabwe, only $591 million had come back to the country.

This follows the lapse of a 90-day ultimatum even as Mnangagwa reiterated that those who did not comply would be prosecuted.

He had announced an official pardon when he was sworn-in in November after a defacto military coup forced Robert Mugabe to resign.

The funds were in respect of export earnings that were kept offshore, payment of imports that never made it into the country and funds stashed in foreign banks “under spurious circumstances,” he said without elaborating.

A list published alongside the statement showed that out of 1,884 individuals and companies, firms in the mining and agriculture sector had the highest amount of export proceeds that were not returned to Zimbabwe.

Mnangagwa said the companies and individuals had ignored the amnesty and he had no other option but to publish their names “and, where necessary, to ensure that those responsible for such illict financial flows are brought to justice.”