The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has attacked the yet to be screened Al Jazeera documentary on corruption, money laundering and gold smuggling, produced by the network's Investigative Unit implicating the central bank.
RBZ governor, John Mangudya took umbrage with the description of the central bank as ‘Southern Africa’s laundromat’ and ‘Southern Africa’s laundry service’ to describe its role in alleged money laundering by some people caught up in the sting in snippets released so far.
“The leaked snippets of the unscreened documentary omit the Bank's responses to 32 questions Al Jazeera Investigative Unit posed to the Bank in connection with the allegations. In the spirit of transparency and social responsibility, the Bank responded to all the 32 questions in detail on 27 February 2023 and the responses clearly show that the narrative, so far purveyed, is nothing but false,” Mangudya moaned, and attempted dismissed the documentary as malicious efforts to tarnish both the image of the central Bank and the country.
“The Bank is disappointed that either Al Jazeera Investigative Unit has not included the Bank's responses in the information they have leaked to or shared with their selected media houses and journalists, or the concerned journalists have elected to ignore the Bank's responses and only published the fake allegations in a malicious pursuit of a hidden agenda, unknown to the Bank or Al Jazeera.”
Keep Reading
- Mangudya speaks on banks’ stability
- Mangudya speaks on banks’ stability
- Rampaging inflation hits Old Mutual . . . giant slips to $9 billion loss after tax
- Monetary measures spur exchange rate stability: RBZ
"It is particularly strange that the reports claim that ‘through the Bank, Government is using illicit ways as a scheme to bust international sanctions placed on political leaders and government entities’. The Bank is not a sanctioned entity, and the cited individuals are not sanctioned persons either,” Mangudya said.
The first part of the documentary was supposed to have aired last Thursday but was shifted to a yet unknown date.
- Follow us on Twitter @NewsDayZimbabwe