By Own Correspondent| Victims of a Mvurwi based loan shark who is linked to the ruling party are afraid of their safety back home in Zimbabwe and are now seeking refugee protection status from a Norwegian government run victim protection unit, Zimeye has learnt.

The victims who cannot be named for fear of violent retributal from the loan shark who is related to a senior government official (name supplied) and is a top party member, transacted and were given the money in local currency which is fast losing relevance and value as compared to the United States Dollar which the ruling party linked mogul is now demanding his dues in.

To exacerbate the already dire situation, the loan shark is threatening a hostile takeover on the family’s properties and physical harm if his money is not paid in Foreign currency at an interest rate of 40 percent.

“Despite him being unlicensed money lender, we agreed that we were going to repay the initial loan with an interest rate of twenty percent over a period of 90 days,” said the victim whom we cannot name for fear of his safety.

‘But then, the fiscal authorities migrated the currency to incorporate the use of the United States Dollars which distorted the whole transaction process of repaying the loan,’ she said.

“The justice delivery system seems to be afraid of this tycoon, as efforts to report the matter to the police did not yield any joy with the law enforcement agencies openly stating that the loan shark was out of bound of their jurisdiction”.

The family of the victim had initially borrowed the money so that they could send their two children to study overseas.

Now, the errant loan shark is threatening unspecified physical bodily harm if his dues are not paid in the stipulated time which he has given the victims’ family members who are living in Zimbabwe.

The family of the victim owns a number of businesses which includes liquor businesses and supermarkets which the loan shark is threatening to take over

But obtaining indications are that the greed loan shark is working on banishing the victims and their family into exile in foreign lands so that he takes over the lucrative family businesses.