Senior government officials who benefited from ties with Gaddafi have gone into panic mode.
According to our sources, the question of what will happen to Gaddafi's investments in Zimbabwe is what made President Robert Mugabe refuse to recognize the Transitional National Council now in charge of most of Libya.
Panicky investors are reported to be furiously consulting about the safety of their investments in the Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe, in which Gaddafi owns a 14 percent stake through the Libyan Arab Foreign Bank, which he personally controlled through his sons.
CBZ denied that Gaddafi had a personal stake in the bank, but international investigators hunting for the dictator's financial assets have concluded that LAFB was Gaddafi's personal tool.
Investments
"Gaddafi has a lot of investments in Zanu (PF) companies and the Zimbabwe economy generally, but the information is closely guarded. He operated through nominees. Many of the deals were sealed or re-activated in 2010 when his son Saad visited the country," said a diplomat who defected to the NTC last week.
Among Gaddafi's assets is a villa in Harare known as Gracelands, bought from Grace Mugabe, and several commercial farms.
Several ministers, including Saviour Kasukuwere, who owns an oil company, and former fuel procurement committee chairman and ex-CBZ Bank CEO Gideon Gono have benefited heavily from Libyan funds.
Gaddafi, a bosom buddy of Mugabe, and his clan wormed their way into key sectors of the economy – energy, banking, mining and farming.
This week, senior Zanu (PF) and Stock Exchange officials confirmed the issue of the TNC’s official takeover had unsettled them.
Under Gono, using Libyan funds, CBZ rose to become the country's largest bank on the basis of assets and capitalisation, surpassing even Barclays and Standard Chartered.
Mugabe appointed Gono chairman of the ill-fated National Fuel Procurement Committee to superintend a $360 million fuel loan that Gaddafi offered Zimbabwe in the 1990s.
CBZ is still in charge of Gaddafi's deals and handles much of the Libyan trade and investment.
Noczim
Uncertainly surrounds the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe’s $44 million debt to LAFB and Tamoil, the Libyan state oil company now under an international embargo, It is not clear what will happen to Tamoil-Zimbabwe, the joint venture company which has been moribund for some years.
Gaddafi infuriated Mugabe when he entered into negotiations with the British government. Last week, Mugabe's spokesman, writing in The Herald as Nathaniel Manheru blasted the Libyan despot for turning to the West and abandoning his erstwhile friend. Charamba said Gaddafi deserved what he was getting from the West in the form of raining bombs.
Post published in: News