Former Mugabe Minister on trial for graft

The trial of former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s Foreign Affairs Minister, who has been in prison for seven months, has begun. Walter Mzembi was arrested in June last year following his return from exile in South Africa on charges of criminal abuse of office and corruption. News24 reports that Mzembi allegedly distributed television sets to church organisations in Zimbabwe during the 2010 Fifa World Cup in SA without Cabinet approval. His lawyer, Emmanuel Samundombe, said ‘we are optimistic with the evidence led, he won’t be on the wrong side of the law’. Other former Mugabe Ministers who fled the country after the 2018 coup include Saviour Kasukuwere, a former Local Government Minister who is exiled in SA, Jonathan Moyo, a former Higher Education Minister who is exiled in Kenya, and Mandi Chimene, a former Provincial Minister who is exiled in Mozambique.

Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate fell to single digits for the first time since 1997, a development authorities say is essential to adopting the gold-backed ZiG as the country’s sole currency by 2030. Inflation slowed to 4.1% in January from 15% last month. ‘This marks a historic moment for Zimbabwe,’ coming nearly three decades after the country last recorded single-digit inflation in domestic currency, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube noted. News24 reports that the ZiG, short for Zimbabwe Gold, introduced in April 2024 after repeated currency failures and surging inflation, is the nation’s sixth attempt since 2009 to replace the US dollar as the country’s main medium of exchange. The central bank last year set out a series of benchmarks that must be met before the ZiG can function as the sole currency, including building foreign reserves sufficient to cover three to six months of imports and keeping inflation in single digits. Foreign assets backing the ZiG rose to $1.2bn by December from $276m in April 2024, Ncube said, adding the government would continue to pursue well co-ordinated monetary and fiscal policies to entrench price stability.