HARARE – Treasury has blacklisted 13 local companies from a government suppliers’ database for allegedly fuelling the country’s high inflation rate through illegal cash deals on the black market.
The embargoed firms, according to a Monday statement by Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube, were recently exposed for wrongdoing by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).
“Following the blacklisting of some companies through my statement dated 09 November 2022, government is concerned and disturbed to note the continuation of indecorous behaviour by some companies who continue to fuel illegal parallel market activities,” Ncube said.
“This waters down government efforts towards the stabilisation of the local currency and containment of inflation, thereby pervading the economy at the expense of the generality of the citizens of Zimbabwe.
“Such behaviour cannot be condoned.”
Ncube went on to list as blacklisted, Casha Designs (Pvt) Ltd, Re-net Technologies (Pvt) Ltd, Malfran Investments (Pvt) Ltd, Difflock Construction (Pvt) Ltd, Staman Investments (Pvt) Ltd, Guide Marketing (Pvt) Ltd, Nodship Investments Pvt Ltd and Infinity Hire Pvt Ltd.
Also blacklisted were Nomalanga Marketing Pvt Ltd, Gift Mwayers t/a Mwayera Transport Pvt Ltd, Mukota Haulage and Buses, Ofixmore Marketing Pvt Ltd and Blecia Investments.
Ncube added, “Having monitored various financial transactions with a view to plug parallel market dealings, the FIU has observed that these companies are siphoning their proceeds to the parallel market, thus triggering domestic inflationary pressures.
“Resultantly, government has blacklisted the aforementioned companies so as to maintain stability in the foreign currency market and to curb inflation.
“In the same vein, the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe will be advised to permanently remove the entities from the list of potential service providers to government.”
This comes as the Zanu PF led government faces citizen criticism for allegedly sitting idle or abetting corrupt cartels that have siphoned millions of US dollars from the national purse through rampant tender fraud.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) recently arrested Clerk of Parliament Kennedy Chokuda for criminal abuse of office after he allegedly approved a tender from a company which sought to supply the legislative institution with 173 laptops with each costing over US$9,000.
A normal brand new laptop costs anything between US$300 and US$500.
Government is also under pressure to act on politically connected individuals recently exposed in an Al Jazeera documentary for alleged gold smuggling and money laundering.
