Bulawayo- Illegal money changers popularly known as ‘Osphatheleni’ have resurfaced in the streets of the city despite a massive clampdown by police in an operation introduced last week aimed at cleansing the city of illegal forex dealings.
This morning, resilient forex exchange dealers were seen milling around the Tredgold Building and freely carrying out their business unmindful of law enforcers’ recent attacks.
The blitz that had started on the 9th of this month had seen the arrest of more than 70 of them and residents were made to enjoy some form of sanity in the streets which is likely to be short lived.
‘Osphatheleni’ who are not only accused of bleeding the country of the much needed foreign currency by creating a parallel black market economy are also guilty of causing menace and pavement blocking around the city’s CBD.
One illegal dealer told The Tenacity Post that they are working hand-in-glove with authorities.
“The recent attacks by police was a hypocrisy stunt meant to hoodwink the public into believing that we are being chased off the streets,” the dealer said
“The police know and so does the Reserve Bank (RBZ) that we are not going anywhere. This is how we bring food to the table for our families and many people in the government benefit from this and they are not prepared to let go just now”, he added.
This however comes after the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) yesterday suspended four of its executives fingered in corruption related activities including corrupt allocation of foreign currency.
In a statement released yesterday, RBZ governer, Dr John Mangudya said the suspension is immediate, pending investigations.
“The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe wishes to advise members of the public that following allegations of impropriety levelled against senior officials of the bank, namely Messrs Mirirai Chiremba, Norman Mataruka, Gresham Muradzikwa and Azvinandawa Saburi, by Mr Lumumba, the bank has found it necessary, for the sake of transparency and good corporate governance, that the allegations be followed through and investigated in line with the bank’s Employment Code of Conduct,” said Dr Mangudya.
This comes in line with President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s remarks as he was quoted last week saying the government is in a move to crackdown on economic saboteurs.
