US embassy cable - 04HARARE702

UNCLAS HARARE 000702 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR AF/S 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR JFRAZER 
USDOC FOR AMANDA HILLIGAS 
TREASURY FOR OREN WYCHE-SHAW 
PASS USTR FLORIZELLE LISER 
STATE PASS USAID FOR MARJORIE COPSON 
 
E. O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON, EINV, PGOV, ZI, Economic Policy, Economic Situation 
SUBJECT: GOZ Forex Crusade Snags Finance Minister 
 
Ref: 03 Harare 2140 
 
1. (SBU) Summary:  With the detention of Finance Minister 
Chris Kuruneri over the weekend, the GOZ's witch hunt 
against foreign exchange externalizers reached a new 
level. Kuruneri is the GOZ's latest pretext for blaming 
the country's economic demise on parallel market trading 
and foreign accounts, rather than its own policies.  End 
Summary. 
 
2. (SBU) For over a month, the South African Sunday Times 
has been embarrassing the GOZ by reporting of Kuruneri's 
new 8-bedroom R$ 30 million beachfront Cape Town getaway. 
This has put the Finance Minister in the surreal position 
of defending himself against a repressive Foreign 
Exchange Control Act that his ministry helped create, but 
that he - and nearly every affluent Zimbabwean - has 
violated.  Ostensibly, the GOZ is charging Kuruneri not 
because he acquired millions of U.S. dollars through 
graft, bribe or other corruption, but because he invested 
in a foreign country without subjecting funds to official 
exchange.  Underscoring the heavy-handed nature of the 
weekend imprisonment, the GOZ is also charging Kuruneri 
with the benign offense of possessing a Canadian 
passport. (GOZ law does not recognize dual nationality.) 
 
3. (SBU) Comment:  We are concerned about the selective 
enforcement of the Foreign Exchange Control Act.  Using 
it to bring down one of many allegedly corrupt ministers 
does not make the legislation or the GOZ's tactics less 
repressive.  If Kuruneri deserves sanction or 
prosecution, it is probably for graft and abuse of 
privilege rather than foreign investment.  While nearly 
every Zimbabwean motorist relied on black market fuel 
last year, the Government similarly imprisoned political 
enemies for purchasing fuel outside official (at the 
time, nonexistent) channels.  By GOZ cabinet standards, 
Kuruneri was a relative moderate who even spoke out 
publicly last year against a proposal from hard-line 
Agricultural Minister Joseph Made (ref).  Now he is the 
latest victim in the GOZ's clumsy attempt to demonstrate 
that forex speculation destroyed the economy and that the 
Government is weeding out corruption. 
 
Sullivan