Reserve Bank faces R1.9bn lawsuit

The cash-strapped Zimbabwean economy looks set for a further battering following a staggering R1.9bn lawsuit against the ‘corrupt’ Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) filed by the country’s biggest gold producer. Mzi Khumalo, chairperson of miner Metallon Corporation, confirmed to The Star that his company had launched legal action against the RBZ to recoup the funds for its failure to pay for the gold that the company had mined. ‘We are doing this because we feel the treatment we have received from the concerned authorities has been driven by corruption and a sense of impunity, for which we believe there is no end in sight,’ Khumalo said. The Star has seen the legal notice served on the Reserve Bank and its subsidiary Fidelity Printers and Refiners, which is Zimbabwe’s only licensed gold dealer. Metallon claimed that between December 2016 and March this year it had lost $82m because the central bank had allegedly paid it only a third of what it was owed. Metallon said 2 000 of its employees had lost their jobs due to the alleged non-payment.