Former Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, has surrendered $24 million held in a private Zanu PF bank account to which he is the only signatory.
According to Zimbabwe’s Independent, the bank account is domiciled in a local commercial bank which does business with government and the ruling party.
In its report on Friday, the newspaper revealed that Mugabe had exclusive control of the secret account, which always had millions of dollars.
“After the coup, there were worries that Mugabe would refuse to hand over the account as he was the only signatory to it. However, he was engaged and he agreed to surrender the account which had US$24 million in it,” a senior Zanu PF official said. “He could have refused, but he felt that he does not need to act like a rogue leader and just let go. Of course, the account was and is still open to abuse.”
The money added to the ruling party’s staggering war chest of around $200 million for the do-or-die elections for President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his military backers who toppled Mugabe in a high-risk operation six months ago.
Zanu PF is going for broke. It has bought 15 million T-shirts, 15 million caps and two million body wrappers for women in a bid to winning the high-stakes elections whose outcome is critical to the country’s future.
Although Zanu PF is broke, drowning in debts totalling $19 million, according to its last Central Committee report, it has managed to raise huge resources from countries like China, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Equatorial Guinea, as well as from companies and individuals who usually fund it to secure their interests. Local companies and individuals also donate to buy protection.
