Deputy minister Raji Modi company selling liquor at black market rates
By Staff Reporter | Nehanda Politics |
Industry and Trade deputy minister Raji Modi’s company has been accused of selling goods at the black market rate, fuelling a galloping exchange rate.
Online publication ZimLive and journalist Hopewell Chin’ono on Friday reported that Liquor Hub, a bottle store owned by the Bulawayo South MP was selling its products at a rate double the official.
“This puts to bed the myth that the economy is working, the economy is dead contrary to what the regime and its bootlickers say.
“This is a shop owned by one of Mnangagwa’s ministers, Raj Modi, but he too is using the parallel market rate because he knows the auction rate is for looting public funds by a chosen few.
“He uses a rate of US$175, yet you are told that it is illegal to use such a rate!
“That’s why they can pay Mafikizolo 5 times more than their fee, they just don’t care!” Chin’ono said.
ZimLive also reported: “ONE RULE FOR SOME: We sent our reporter to Liquor Hub, a shop on Fife Street and 4th Avenue owned by deputy industry minister Raj Modi to buy a bottle of Strawberry Lips – one in USD and the other in RTGS. The exchange rate? US$1:ZWL 170.”
This comes at a time when the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe recently embarked on a naming and shaming operation against individuals and companies accused of manipulating the official foreign exchange rate and misusing foreign currency allocated by the government.
The central bank in the past two weeks named and shamed 77 individuals alleged to be abusing mobile phone services and social media to facilitate forex transactions.
The naming and shaming has already triggered fierce fights within Zanu PF, with some party members claiming the exercise was motivated by political malice rather than a genuine concern to stabilise the economy.
NewsDay on Saturday reported that several party members in a WhatsApp group, The Patriots, questioned the logic behind merely naming and shaming the offenders without arresting them.
It was noted that one Zanu PF member questioned why the party was now embarking on naming and shaming yet it fired party youths, Godfrey Tsenengamu and Lewis Matutu, for doing the same. Nehanda Radio
