Corruption: Billionaire demands treason laws

By Shame Makoshori

A British tycoon with significant investment interests in Zimbabwe has come out strongly against deteriorating corruption levels, suggesting that the country urgently required thorough measures to arrest the scourge.

Several major local banks have collapsed under the weight of fraud and corruption as global corruption indices point to a rot in business ethics and morals in both the private and public sectors.

The country is at a cross roads.

Even after setting up an anti-corruption commission a few years ago, reports of fraud and vice have swelled.

Property tycoon, Nicholas van Hoogstraten, who is known for his sharp tongue and shareholder activism in a cluster of listed firms that he controls, has suggested that more stringent and painful measures were imperative to avoid a situation where millions of people will continue to sink into abject poverty while a few connected individuals enjoyed the cream of the country’s resources.

In a recent interview with the Financial Gazette’s Companies & Markets (C&M), van Hoogstraten, however said he was concerned that authorities had taken long to intervene and bring several culprits to book, even in clear cases of fraud and corruption.

“The will to grab them (fraudsters) is not there,” van Hoogstraten told (C&M) during a recent visit to Zimbabwe.

“We must use treason laws, charge them with fraud and treason. People who act against the interests of the State must be charged, that will deter them because treason is a serious offence. Investment has gone down because of corruption,” van Hoogstraten said.

“The country has to be free of fraud. When banks fail because of corruption, or are governed by people who are not bankers that is when there is a problem,” he added.

Last year, government made stunning revelations that industry captains had abused a US$40 million package meant to rescue ailing industries by splurging on luxury vehicles for exclusive lifestyles, leaving their companies tottering on the brink of collapse.

The comments by Industry and Commerce Deputy Minister, Chiratidzo Mabuwa, exposed how corruption, which has only been blamed on the public sector, had made headway into the private sector.

The task ahead for authorities is big.

Van Hoogstraten said the State must pursue such abusers of funds meant to relieve the public from a deepening economic crisis, carry out extensive lifestyle audits and bring them to account.

That way, government will be cleansing the system in a way that would deter the rest of society from acting in ways that brings the economy down.

“We must pick people that have a car or property that is not at their level,” said the tycoon, who counts significant interests in Hwange Colliery Company Limited, Rainbow Tourism Group, CFI Holdings and many real estate assets among his key holdings in Zimbabwe.

“We ask them how they are living in properties worth US$3 million, look at their taxes and their backgrounds and make them account. We know them; you go to Borrowdale and Mount Pleasant and pick them up. Even if you stand on the road and stop them, you will pick them. This country has become worse than Nigeria.

Nigeria used to be the highest when it comes to fraud. But the level of fraud is now serious in Zimbabwe because of the high numbers of educated people. We (Zimbabwe) always had the highest (number of educated people), and we still possibly are the highest educated. The high rates of fraud are here. We have a problem here, a big problem,” said van Hoogstraten. Financial Gazette