The Financial Gazette

Staff Reporter

SECURITIES Commission of Zimbabwe (SECZ) chairperson, Willia Bonyongwe, said her board will not stand in the way of Finance Minister Tendai Biti should he decide to change the current commission upon the expiry of its term of office.

Bonyongwe was appointed to SECZ along with four other commissioners—deputy chairperson, Arthur Charamba; former Zimbabwe ambassador to China, Christopher Mutsvangwa; John Chikura and Martha Rukuni in September 2008 by then finance minister, Samuel Mumbengegwi.
Their term of office expires this year.
“Should he (Biti) decide to appoint a new commission, it’s not as if we have nothing else to do.  It is his prerogative to do so,” she said.
The commissioners had been reduced to three after Chikura and Rukuni were relieved of their posts after they were embroiled in the ReNaissance Merchant Bank (RMB) saga, where they are directors of Africa First ReNaissance Corporation, the holding company of the merchant bank.
RMB is currently under curatorship for flouting banking laws, which resulted in it incurring a US$16 million negative capital.
Biti indicated last week that his ministry would set up a new commission “very very soon” before working on reforms of the Securities Act, a piece of legislation regulating the capital markets.
“In order to ensure that our markets are operating smoothly, I’m going to amend drastically the Securities Act and very, very soon, I’m going to appoint commissioners to the Securities Commission. Their terms of office have expired, so I’m going to deal with that,” said Biti.