RBZ HQ cordoned off by ZRP

Armed officers from the ZRP with assault rifles are now patrolling the front area and allowing only current employees to enter the high rise building.

Visitors are not allowed into the building.

This Reporter was told by a ZRP officer : “We are not allowinmg any visitors into the building until further notice. Please kindly leave and stop asking questions otherwise you will be arrested immediately”.

On Friday more than 100 former employees demonstrated outside the plush building at 80 Samora Machel Avenue, demanding outstanding cash owed to them after they were retrenched.

They could be seen displaying and waving placards denouncing RBZ Governor, Dr Gideon Gono.

The workers said in separate interviews that they had been told that their outstanding packages would be paid on or before March 31, 2011, but when they checked their bank accounts yesterday there was “nothing” in them.

“We want our money today,” a former worker said in an interview on Firiday.

“They sell diamonds and so they can pay us from that money instead of splashing it on unnecessary items such as luxury 4X4 cars.”

Most workers were from Fidelity Printers and Refiners (Private) Limited, a subsidiary of the RBZ, which was once its flagship before dollarisation crept in.

Fidelity Printers printed the worthless Zimbabwe dollar Bearer cheques introduced by the former Minister of Finance, Dr Herbert Murerwa, to try and curtail soaring inflation in Zimbabwe.

When he arrived at the Central Bank, Gono hired more than 1 400 staff.

However, tables took a nasty turn after dollarisation was introduced.

The workers, mainly from Fidelity Printers, then had to be retrecnched because Zimbabwe does not print United States dollars.

The country has now introduced a dual currency of the US greenback and the South African Rand as legal tender for all business transactions hence the retrenchments.

More than 1 700 workers were then retrenched by Gono and he promised them lavish packages which he has, however, failed to pay.

Gono was nowhere to be found during the demonstrations and Police had to be called in as the situation was almost getting out of hand when the angry workers began singing revolutionary songs praising Zanu PF boss, President Robert Mugabe.