Zimbabwe – 16 July 2015

Zimbabwe govt, municipalities have $3mln locked up in collapsed Allied Bank
Zimbabwe’s cash-strapped government is set to lose nearly $600,000 which is locked up in Allied Bank — majority owned by transport minister Obert Mpofu — while municipals and other state departments are owed over $2,5 million following its collapse early this year, with chances of recovering all the money slim, The Source has established.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe in January cancelled the bank’s operating licence as it was no longer in a safe a sound condition.
According to the bank liquidator’s interim report, the financial institution collapsed due to, among other factors, negative core capital, illiquid toxic assets, management shortcomings, gross undercapitalisation, persistent losses, abuse of depositors’ funds, high volume of non-performing loans and bad corporate governance.
The Independent

Zimbabwe Is Proposing to Return a Select Number of Farms to White Landowners
The decision comes 15 years after the state encouraged violent seizures of white-owned properties. A decade and a half after the Zimbabwean government seized large swaths of land from white farmers in the country, President Robert Mugabe has tentatively declared that he will return certain properties to their original owners.
Under the suggested policy, the leaders of the country’s 10 provinces will draft a list of farms in their respective districts that they deem to be “of strategic economic importance,” the Zimbabwe Mail reports. The government will also establish a European Union–backed commission to evaluate the landgrab practices commenced in 2000, which were frequently violent.
TIMES

Zim has lost 20 yrs – Mnangagwa
VICE-PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has conceded that Zimbabwe has fallen far behind other countries in terms of development, saying the government needs to swallow its pride and review some controversial economic policies to attract foreign investment.
Speaking in an interview with CCTV, the Chinese national television broadcaster, last week during his week-long visit to the Asian country, Mnangagwa said government will have to literally “bite the bullet” for the country to catch up with its African peers.
He said the Zanu PF government was “working on a massive reform process,” including social and legislative frameworks, “to bring Zimbabwe back to the table of nations”.
News Day