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Daniel Nemukuyu Senior Court Reporter
Individuals and companies that externalised funds but failed to use the 90-day Presidential amnesty to repatriate them back risk being imprisoned for more than 10 years or being fined triple the amount siphoned outside the country, legal experts have said.

President Mnangagwa last year gave those implicated three months to return the funds. The deadline expired yesterday.
Those who heeded the call are being pardoned unconditionally.

Harare lawyer Mr Wellington Pasipanodya of Manase & Manase Legal Practitioners said the offence was serious and attracted a stiffer penalty.

“Externalisation of funds is an offence prescribed in terms of Section 4(c) of the Exchange Control Act [Chapter 22:05],” he said. “The sentence set by the Act is 10 years or a fine three times the value of the items concerned on condition that the externally owed funds are repatriated to Zimbabwe.”

Externalisation of money and assets, said Mr Pasipanodya, was motivated by corruption.
“Government must, however, look at this case in a two-pronged manner: in that most of the externalised funds were as a result of corrupt dealings due to undue influence of senior Government officials; as such, an element of theft, fraud and corruption also comes into play,” he said.

“Culprits must be brought to book under an umbrella of these charges.”
Dean of Law at Zimbabwe Ezekiel Guti University (ZEGU) Mr Caleb Mucheche said the essence of the law against externalising assets sought to ensure Government was able to recover the amount prejudiced.

“The main rationale for the penalties for the crime of externalisation of foreign currency is to ensure that restitution and repatriation of at least the equivalent amount of the externalised currency or property back to its original source in Zimbabwe; typical of an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth or flesh for flesh,” said Mr Mucheche.

Mr Tapson Dzvetero of Dzvetero & Antonio Legal Practitioners said the law was clear and the offenders should be punished.
“The law, in my view, proscribes transactions which create obligations to make payments outside our Zimbabwean jurisdiction without approval from the relevant authorities,” he said.

“The Exchange Control Regulations, Section 11(2), provide that unless otherwise authorised by the exchange control authority, no Zimbabwean resident shall make any payment outside Zimbabwe or incur an obligation to make payment outside Zimbabwe.

“The purpose of the regulations is obviously to protect much-needed foreign exchange in Zimbabwe. If deadline is not extended, then it follows that there is a possibility of criminal prosecution against the offenders.”

Another legal practitioner, Mr Kudzai Kadzere, noted that externalisation was a very serious offence.
“It is punishable by a fine the equivalent of the externalised amount or up to 10 years in jail or both. It’s a serious economic crime,” he said.