Zimbabwe’s central bank has ordered banks to freeze accounts belonging to former Higher Education Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo and former Local Government Minister Saviour Kasukuwere amid claims that they were involved in corrupt activities while working for the Zanu PF government.
Home Affairs Minister Obert Mpofu told the state-controlled Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation that the government is looking into the two’s finances.
Moyo and Kasukuwere were linked to the Generation 40 faction of the ruling party, which wanted former First Lady Grace Mugabe to succeed 93 year-old Robert Mugabe, whose government was toppled in a military coup.
An unsigned letter leaked by some people linked to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe stipulates that the banks should monitor the accounts and make the necessary reports to relevant authorities.
Moyo allegedly used about $400,000 drawn from the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund to conduct Zanu PF activities, including Mugabe’s so-called million march a year ago.
Kasukuwere is wanted for undisclosed issues though the military and police want him to reveal his sources of funding in connection with a multi-million dollar mansion he built in Harare.
At the same time, former Home Affairs Minister Ignatious Chombo, who is facing charges of corruption, and former Zanu PF Youth League secretary Kudzai Chipanga have been granted bail by a Harare court following their arrest a few weeks ago when the military staged a coup, claiming that it was looking for criminals surrounding Mugabe.
The Zimbabwe Defence Forces claimed that the “criminals” were misleading the former president, who had fired his then deputy, Emmerson Mnangagwa, for disloyalty in what was widely seen as internal political squabbles in the ruling party.
Mnangagwa allegedly belonged to a Zanu PF faction known as Team Lacoste while Mugabe’s wife, Grace, was being backed by Moyo, Kasukuwere, Chombo and others, under the banner of another faction known as Generation 40. The G40 group wanted Mrs. Mugabe to succeed her husband.
The military, which claims that it had a constitutional mandate to temporarily sieze power to restore order in the southern African nation, has maintained that it never staged a coup in Zimbabwe.