#FactChecking on #Externalisation
Thread

This is a story by a leading business weekly, the @Zimindependent by its Chief Reporter, Andrew Kunambura.

@Faye_Zaba @nevanjim @ZimFact @wisdomdzungairi @czionline @sekaikuvarika @ZNCCNational @baba_nyenyedzi @kudzie_sharara

2/ What is to “externalise money” in the generic sense?

This is when one takes money which is not a local currency out of the country.

Is a foreigner here spending its money, externalising the money from his/her country? @RangaMberi @rangamataire @HeraldZimbabwe

3/ The Global Financial Integrity (GFI) defines “illicit financial flow” as an illegal movement of money or capital from one country to another. See what is illegal.
@zimlive @BitiTendai @lawsocietyofzim @kukurigoZW @newswireZW @FingazLive @ZimTreasury @GGuvamatanga @MthuliNcube

4/ The main legal instrument for exchange control is the Exchange Control Act administered by the @ReserveBankZIM. There is no definition of what externalisation is & how it’s determined.

On the RBZ website, there is an FAQ on exchange control. There is nothing about it too.

5/ When a foreign currency is a local tender & one makes payments out of the country for normal individual/household consumption or business operation, is that externalisation?

There is need to separate externalisation from illicit financial flow & money laundering.

6/ #Externalisation can be described “as a transfer, export or expatriation of property (precious minerals, currency, securities, debts and assets) from one country to another contrary to restrictions and administrative measures for international transactions that govern them.”

7/ BIG Questions on foreign transactions:

Is buying forex cash notes from the street to take it out of the country to go & save or spend for individual/household consumption or legitimate business operation equal to externalisation? If yes, how should it be done?

8/ Is finding a supplier with forex outside of the country & then pays it in local currency or in forex cash notes here in return to have a foreign transaction settled whether by a forex cash deposit or bank transfer equal to externalisation? If yes, how should it be done?

9/ Is a failure to do a declaration of earned forex from here or failure to do an acquittal of earned forex through exports equal to externalisation? If yes, how should it be done?

10/ Is someone with an immovable property or productive asset here and then gets paid for it outside of the country where the proceeds of the sale are banked in a foreign country equal to externalisation? If yes, how should it be done?

11/ Is paying in foreign currency using an international VISA card for an air ticket for someone flying to in another country from a foreign base equal to externalisation? If yes, how should it be done?

12/ Is paying for accomodation now foreign currency using an international VISA card for someone in a foreign country equal to externalisation? If yes, how should it be done? @NewsHawksLive @BusinessTimesZW @BusisaMoyo

14/ Is buying forex from the street or receiving free funds & then depositing it in one’s FCA account for an international VISA/MasterCard & then make international payments online or when one travels outside the country equal to externalisation?

14/ These questions appear very simple but they should unravel the legal minefields that have beset the social-political and economy systems.

Many times #externalisation has been wrongly viewed as money laundering & illicit financial flow.

15/ My attempt to have a one-on-one engagement with the @Zimindependent author of the article, Andrew Kanambura, yielded nothing.

That’s the quality of journalism we have in Zimbabwe. @Zimra_11 @ZACConline @PoliceZimbabwe @VoluntaryMedia @DumisaniMuleya

16/ When it comes to this alleged crime of externalisation, the results of a search online only gives results about Zimbabwe. There is nowhere else in the world where one finds this alleged crime.
@BrezhMalaba @EdmundKudzayi

17/ No conviction has ever been secured over this alleged crime except acute violation of the constitution’s
s71(2) #PropertyRights,
s63(1)-(3) #DueProcess &
s71(3) #DueExpropriation.

The state authorities here are keen to use a war tanker to kill a fly @Wamagaisa

18/ #Externalization is a term either created and/or popularised by Gideon Gono as a political tool against Chris Kuruneri, @mmawere & @JamesMakamba.

19/ These prominent three plus more low level cases were criminalised through the statist assumption that private export earnings belong to the state & yet the state wasn’t involved in equity & debt funding, production & distribution of the export products.

20/ Here is a review minute by Justice Msakwa on a case involving the crime of so called externalisation & yet one finds the state authorities still making references to a fictitious crime & the media vachivapembedza without question. Pages 1-4

21/ Pages 5-6

22/ The Gideon Gono inspired use of the word #externalisation outrageously defies logic.