Over US$1m RBZ assets to go under the hammer
By Pindai Dube
Monday, 09 May 2011 17:17
HARARE – Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)’s property worth over US$1 million
will be auctioned in Bulawayo by Ruby Auctions on Wednesday in a bid to
recover an outstanding debt owed to Seedco International Company.
The debt with Seedco, a company which specialises in farming implements,
stems from the supply of farming equipment that was delivered to the
central bank in 2007 when it was running the farming mechanisation
programme.
Efforts to get a comment from RBZ officials and the Minister of Finance
Tendai Biti were not successful yesterday.
Biti and officials from the Attorney General’s office have in the past said
it is illegal to auction RBZ assets as they were considered to be state
property.
According to a public notice published on Sunday, Ruby Auctions is under the
instruction of Deputy Sheriff of Harare to sell the farming equipment that
is lying idle at the National Railways of Zimbabwe yard in Bulawayo.
“Duly instructed by the Deputy Sheriff of Harare, we shall sell by public
auction the assets to the highest bidder at Astra Yard, National Railways of
Zimbabwe Bulawayo-Grain siding on Wednesday,” said Ruby auction in the
notice.
The assets to be auctioned include 20 945 harrows, 54 planters 1639
cultivators, 1516 scotch carts, 537 scotch carts boxes, 2 ploughs and 1277
knap sprayers.
The auction of the RBZ equipment was once stopped in June following a
directive from cabinet.
In 2009 the High Court also ordered the RBZ property to be attached after it
failed to settle a US$2,1million debt with Farm Tech spares and implements
company.
The RBZ fortunes nose-dived soon after the dollarisation of the economy when
the country stopped using the Zimbabwe dollar.