via $50m gold smuggled out of Zim every month | SW Radio Africa by Mthulisi Mathuthu
An estimated $50m worth of gold is smuggled out of Zimbabwe every month and the country is losing more through secret financial deals, tax evasion and other illegal activities, an official at Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ) has said.
A Radio Dialogue report said TIZ programme coordinator Sibonokuhle Ndhlovu-Ncube further revealed that an estimated $1.7m worth of gold is being smuggled out of Penhalonga alone every year.
Speaking at a workshop on debt in Bulawayo this week Ncube said according to the Global Financial Integrity Report Zimbabwe has lost $12 billion in the last three decades.
Ncube said tax evasion and money laundering were the most common financial crimes. Tax evasion is when individuals or organizations illegally avoid paying tax while money laundering is when proceeds of crime are transformed into legitimate money or assets.
Ncube mentioned allegations of tax evasion by companies involved in the mining of gold, nickel and palladium rhodium, as well as reports of wildlife trafficking to Asia. She said these and other illegal activities were directly responsible for Zimbabwe’s economic decline. Ncube said there were laws in the country to deal with these crimes and urged financial institutions to enforce them.
TIZ Chairman Loughty Dube told SW Radio Africa that the situation in the gold mining sector was ‘reflective of the state of the entire extractive industry.’ He said there were no effective mechanisms of accounting for anything mined in the country.
He said: ‘As long as there are no proper and effective systems put in place to oversee the whole process from extraction to exporting, corrupt individuals and organizations will exploit the loop hole.’
Dube urged Zimbabwe to emulate Botswana, which he said has proper accounting and monitoring mechanisms governing the mining sector. Dube said if the mining industry was run transparently and efficiently Zimbabwe would not have problems with paying civil servants and financing essential sectors such as health and education.
These comments come at a time when the government is struggling to pay civil servants and is failing to finance public services due to corruption and mismanagement.
COMMENTS
The people who work hard to produce this gold are exercising their basic right to sell their work for the best price they can get. There is nothing wrong with this at all. It is our twisted government that thinks it has a right to force miners to sell for les than their gold is worth so that private individuals within the government may benefit. The country does not lose at all from this activity. This is what finances our trade deficit. They are helping us all to get the things we need.
If taxes are not being paid. This is good. We have seen what these ZANU thieves do with our tax dollars.
gold, nickel and palladium rhodium, minerals I never knew we had. palladium what what!!!
I think tax is paid.ZIMRA has the mechanism to ensure companies pay taxes. Just tell us that the tax remitted goes into the pockets of the greedy bosses at ZIMRA and a huge chunk goes to oiling the machinery which is used to cover up these crimes against the nation. The clerk of Parliament for example wouldnt be so keen to block debate about corruption cases in parliament if he wasn’t getting cuts from all parastatal ,mining and other government orgs.Money is exchanging hands as everyone in ZPF pays someone else to shut up right down to the Police who will not investigate to the judges who will ensure that if ever charges are laid there will never be a conviction let alone a court date.
The only people who can successfully launder money are those in power so stop with the lies