Zimbabwe board guilty of currency breaches

Zimbabwe Cricket and Ozias Bvute, the board's managing director, have been found guilty of contravening the country's stringent foreign currency exchange regulations.

ZC and Bvute were convicted of giving out over US$1.3 million in overseas payments and tuition for scholarships. This is the first time anyone from ZC has been convicted of any charges since several allegations of fund misappropriations arose a year ago.

But this case is only the tip of the iceberg as ZC - an organisation which deals with international associates - has to do transactions in foreign currency because of a worthless local currency. More serious and glaring charges levelled against the ZC hierarchy by the country's central bank were ignored by state prosecutors.

According to the state-controlled Herald newspaper ZC, which was represented by Harare lawyer, Wilson Manase, will know the sentence on Friday. The paper reports that in mitigation Manase pleaded with the court for a lighter sentence saying the offence was committed out of ignorance as ZC was not properly advised.

"Because of that we have come knowing that our hands are dirty realising that we should have sought approval from the regulating authorities to carry out the transactions."

Manase further urged the court to view the case in the sense that the offence was for national gain. "The offence was committed in furthering the interests of the game. Cricket is one of the games that have made Zimbabwe tick in the international community.

"The court is therefore urged to balance its scales and come up with a fair sentence, since it was not for personal gains but for Zimbabwe cricket to prosper. We have learnt a lesson as ZC. This would never happen again, although ignorance is no defense."

Prosecutor Obi Mabahwana argued that there were no special circumstances and urged the court to impose a minimum dollar to dollar fine. He further told the court that foreign currency was not free funds but generated through cricket.

Charges against the organisation arose between November 30, 2004 and September 30, 2005 when ZC sold television rights through the American-based company Octagon CSI. They gained US$6,293,917 from the sale and paid a commission of US$1,258,783 to Octagon CSI without the approval of the necessary authorities.

In May last year ZC sold advertising space at its Harare Sports Club ground to a South African company called 7Cs. ZC later decided to sell all the space to an Indian company, Gameplan Pvt Ltd. The board directed Gameplan to pay compensation of US$75,000 to 7Cs for loss of business without the knowledge of the central bank.

On October 21 last year ZC paid school fees for its employees, players Hamilton Masakadza and Alfred Mbwembwe as well as Themba Mkhosana, the former development manager who resigned upon returning from the UK where he had completed a degree. A total of US$42,931 was paid to colleges in the United States.

In July, Zimbabwe Cricket were fined US$1100 for an earlier breach of exchange-control regulations.