CIO scuttles Chiyangwa deal

BY GIFT PHIRI
HARARE - Flamboyant Harare businessman Phillip Chiyangwa is seeking legal counsel in a desperate bid to pursue what could be the last opportunity to repair his damaged credibility over the executive cancellation of a unique licence granted to his company, Pinnacle Property Holdings,

by the central bank last week to develop and sell houses in foreign currency.
Chiyangwa has been told by his legal counsel, Byron Venturas, that the challenge to the executive order could take the form of an application to the court of appeal against President Robert Mugabe’s directive to central bank chief Gideon Gono to cancel the landmark US$200 million property deal.
A recalcitrant Mugabe summoned Gono to Zimbabwe House for a strong dressing down last Friday after consulting his security advisors in a – “Directors Meeting” chaired by Central Intelligence Organisation director general Happyton Bonyongwe and also attended by State Security minister Didymus Mutasa.
Intelligence sources said it was unanimously agreed that the licence be cancelled because of Chiyangwa’s previous incriminating details of spying for foreign governments in return for forex and allegations of spiriting US$200,000 to Namibia under the guise of forging an alliance with Namibia Northern Investment Group.
Intelligence sources noticed that there was something peculiar about the deal in that Chiyangwa, who has been fired from the ruling party, had sought permission from various banks in South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, New Zealand and Canada to operate foreign currency accounts even before the deal was approved.
The Zimbabwean heard that the executive decision to cancel the licence was actuated by fears that Chiyangwa could use it to externalize huge amounts of foreign currency.
Gono reportedly professed ignorance of the deal, blaming it on the head of the EFFCM division Paul Sigauke, who was subsequently fired on Mugabe’s orders for “inappropriately and without authority” signing the approval.
Gono – who has been tasked to turn around Zimbabwe’s ailing economy – convinced Mugabe of his innocence by claiming that he could never had approved the deal because it ran counter to the objectives of his HomeLink project.

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