Zimbabwe's ZANU-PF and MDC Clash Over Central Bank Reform Legislation

Senators of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party have proposed 11 amendments to pending legislation to reform the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, drawing fire from the Movement for Democratic Change formation of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, which introduced the bill.



Lawmakers of the Tsvangirai MDC formation have responded by threatening to scrap an immunity clause intended to shield incumbent RBZ Governor Gideon Gono and senior central bank staff from the legal consequences of various actions they took on behalf of the former Mugabe government.

Gono has acknowledged diverting monies of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in 2008 to fund government activities, and accounts of many non-governmental organizations similarly tapped without permission.

The indemnification clause drafted by ZANU-PF House legislators before the bill's passage in the lower chamber, gave partial immunity to Gono and other RBZ employees “for anything done in good faith and without negligence."

Senator Obert Gutu, chief whip of the Tsvangirai MDC formation, said the new amendments introduced by Senator Monica Mutsvangwa, chief whip for ZANU-PF in the upper chamber, have thrown the bill into disarray.


* VoA