BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE
THE Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) has written to the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) senior journalist Judith Makwanya disputing a televised report that milling companies were spinning central bank-issued foreign currency on the parallel market.
Makwanya on February 26 this year reported about one Douglas Kwande, a local farmer from Gweru who was said to be in the business of baking bread using locally-produced wheat.
However, the GMAZ dismissed the allegations that there were milling companies that were reluctant to support wheat producers and that they were receiving or requesting foreign currency from the central bank, which they allegedly spin on the black market.
GMAZ instructed their lawyers Wintertons Legal Practitioners to demand further particulars in the form of specific names of the milling companies that were selling foreign currency on the black market, the exact black market dealers who have dealt with milling companies and the names of wheat producers who have requested for support from the alleged milling companies.
“We are instructed to demand the supply of the requested information within five working days of your receipt of this letter, failing which we have standing instructions to institute legal proceedings against you in your personal capacity for possible injury and possible harm to the reputation of milling companies currently operating in Zimbabwe,” the lawyers said.
The letter was served to Makwanya on March 1 and she is yet to respond to the letter.
