Correspondent

Onlookers at the Harare Magistrates’ Court were on Saturday left shocked after Health Minister Obadiah Moyo produced a box full of cash payment for his $50 000 bail.

The court on Saturday released Moyo on bail following his arrest the previous day on allegations of corruption regarding a $60 million deal to procure Covid-19 tests and equipment.

Sitting in Harare, the court’s magistrate granted Moyo bail for Z$50 000 ($2 000). Bail was not opposed by prosecutors who are investigating three charges, including an “abuse of office” charge that carries a maximum sentence of 15 years.

Moyo was arrested for his dealings with Drax International LLC and Drax Consult SAGL, companies prosecutors claim were illegally awarded contracts by the health ministry without a competitive tender process.

Ordinary people in dire need of cash are sleeping outside banking halls to withdraw a maximum of $1 000 a week during the current biting winter nights.

One can also buy cash from mobile money platforms at a premium.

For one to withdraw the $50 000 that Moyo had in possession for his bail Saturday, an ordinary bank customer would have to sleep outside a banking hall for 50 consecutive weeks.

A few minutes after being granted bail by chief magistrate Munamato Mutevedzi, Moyo confirmed to long held suspicions that it was only senior government officials and those connected to high offices that had ready access to cash.

These same senior government and bank officials are accused of fuelling the now thriving foreign currency black market in which they dump their local dollars to mop-up US dollars in possession of ordinary citizens. They also operate mobile money platforms they use to harvest scarce forex.

After court and at the Clerk of Court office, Moyo was given an option to pay his bail through the use of an ATM card, which he gladly did, leaving his aides to carry back the cash and reload it into one of his four luxury state-issued vehicles that had accompanied him to court.