Cynicism blights Treasury’s Valley Seeds pledge

AN alleged loan guarantee scam involving Zimbabwe’s Finance ministry and Valley Seeds might “end up in legal nightmares for its punters”, as secretary George Guvamatanga’s letter was tantamount to an acknowledgment of debt by the government to the agricultural company, lawyers say.

This comes amid different interpretations and lampooning of the ex-banker’s March 24 attempt to “assure Ecobank Zimbabwe (Ecobank) that Themba Nkatazo’s company was, indeed, a bona fide government creditor, which had played a critical role in boosting the country’s food security”.

“In light of the so-called Guvamatanga-Valley Seeds debacle, my view is that the dispatch was nothing more than a ‘comfort letter’ and just as the Finance secretary clearly stated (in the reference section) that it was: a support letter, which is a standard practice and basic procedure really in banking the world over,” a commercial lawyer said, adding: “If the agro firm had secured the facility, it would have done so on the strength of its balance sheet and not this purported surety”.

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