In a government gazette released on Friday, any legal proceedings against the central bank will be suspended for the next six months. The regulation means that any creditor who has been seeking recourse in the courts to force the RBZ to pay its debts will not be entertained in the courts in the next six months.
The regulations were cited as the "Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) (Amendment of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Act) Regualtions , 2010" titled 63B Legal Proceedings against Bank.
"The State Liabilities Act [Chapter 22:13] applies with necessary changes to legal proceedings against the Bank, including the substitution of references therein to a minister by references to the governor," read the gazette released on Friday.
"These regulations apply to proceedings against the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe that are pending on the date of commencement of these regulations."
The new regulations will apply to proceedings against the RBZ that are pending on the date the regulations come into effect and they will be in force for six months during which Parliament should make the amendments permanent.
As a result of the promulgation of the regulations, an auction of RBZ farming implements was halted at the last minute on Thursday in Bulawayo on the instructions of the Deputy Sheriff of Harare.
The RBZ has been slapped with several lawsuits over unpaid debts over the last three years marking an embarrassing end to RBZ boss Gideon Gono’s controversial quasi fiscal operations that made him an instant hero as he printed money to buy food and other commodities to dish out mostly to Mugabe’s cronies at the height of the country’s economic crisis.
Economists and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) blame Gono, who became the country's chief banker in December 2003, for compounding Zimbabwe’s economic crisis through quasi-fiscal activities that saw the RBZ pump trillions of dollars into financing Mugabe’s populist projects and political programmes.
They say printing money was fuelling inflation. Hyperinflation and the shortage of banknotes were the most visible signs of a severe economic crisis blamed on Mugabe's policies and seen in shortages of food and every essential commodity. – ZimOnline
