Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Said to Renege on Deal to Surrender Assets for Auction
The Office of the Sheriff has attached five buildings belonging to the central bank that may also go under the hammer to settle debts
Farmtec attorney Davison Kanokanga, said the deputy sheriff has made several fruitless trips to the RBZ seeking to have the property in Mutare and Nyanga, Manicaland province, handed over to auctioneers The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has reneged on an agreement with the Office of the Sheriff to deliver assets under judicial attachment to settle a US$2.1 million debt to Farmtec Supplies and Implements, sources said Thursday. Farmtec attorney Davison Kanokanga, said the deputy sheriff has made several fruitless trips to the RBZ seeking to have the property in Mutare and Nyanga, Manicaland province, handed over to auctioneers. Kanokanga told VOA Studio 7 reporter Gibbs Dube that in light of the central bank’s failure to deliver the movable assets to the sheriff in Harare, auctioneers are now expected to sell them in on spot in Nyanga and Mutare. He said he had instructed the deputy sheriff to attach more movable property as the property already attached, including computers and other office equipment, will not be sufficient to cover the judgment against the central bank. “We are now looking at attaching more office equipment, motor vehicles and other RBZ valuable assets,” Kanokanga said. He said the attached property would be auctioned early next month. The Office of the Sheriff has attached five buildings belonging to the central bank that may also go under the hammer if Farmtec is not paid. The deeply-indebted bank, believed to be insolvent and close to collapse, ordered 150 tractors from Farmtec as an implementing agent for the Farm Mechanization and Agricultural Support Enhancement Facility under the previous ZANU-PF government of President Robert Mugabe. Farmtec supplied some 60 tractors worth US$2.1 million and the remaining 90 were to be delivered once the bank paid for that consignment. More recently, the Reserve Bank failed to redeem as scheduled bonds it issued to mining companies in lieu of cash payment for gold it received from mining companies between 2007 and 2008.