The public media recently reported that on a monthly basis,  Zimbabwe is losing gold worth US$100m through smuggling. This is bad news for the country as this has a direct impact on the fiscus!

The Business Times reported recently that gold deliveries had plunged by 73% and the situation could not be any worse. Huston we have a problem!

Most of the gold is smuggled through our porous borders with South Africa being the preferred destination regionally and Dubai being the international one. Our gold should be headed to Fidelity but of late gold deliveries have plummeted with small scale miners preferring instant greenback payments from illegal market merchants.

The question is how can the country rectify the anomaly?

• Cancel all local gold trading licences except Fidelity,
• Invite international and local traders to set up Gold Banks,
• Independent Gold Banks to complement Fidelity in the trade of gold,
• The Gold Banks to also provide access to capital for small scale miners and machinery,
• Gold Banks to keep records and remit taxes

Those buying our gold in Dubai and South Africa should be invited to set up local offices—this helps to reduce smuggling as they will have access to gold directly from the miners.

Botswana did it with their diamonds and there is little smuggling of their precious minerals. Our current system encourages smuggling which comes at a huge opportunity cost to the country. We also have a successful tobacco system which we can draw lessons from.

Fidelity is not going to match prices offered by shady dealers as their prices are too low and takes time to be processed. The end result is miners are now selling a small percentage to Fidelity inorder to keep up appearances—the real deal is smuggling!

Is it feasible to capacitate Fidelity and avail them with more hard cash to match parallel market rates? Where will the funds come from? An additional question is what will stop illegal merchants from increasing the premium? They will fight for control of their turf and deliveries to date shows this is an unwinnable war.

Oh No—Another round of illegal homes demolitions coming up? How many times will homes continue to be built and destroyed? What proportion of the GDP destroyed? Why is there no solution in sight to the problem of illegal settlements?

The Chitungwiza Town Council has issued a public notice of intention to demolish tens of homes and structures built illegally around the time. The first question is why are there no mechanisms to detect and take corrective action before structures are built?

Why not destroy foundations instead of complete homes? Why wait for tens of homes to spring up with tenants moving in and taking residence for several years? Who is responsible for monitoring illegal structures?

How do you verify you are building on bona fide areas? How do you buy residential stands?

Nodoubt the biggest scam of the century—this area has the highest rate of scammers and figures involved are huge. From fake stands to that are built and late demolished—there is just no end in sight to the madness.

Where are residents trusts? What roles are they playing in sensitising the public about illegal structures?

Who is behind the selling of the land to desperate home seekers? Are these land barons ever taken to task for loss of property and investment? Do we have tight laws that punish those that sell illegal land? Should the laws not be tightened to come up with stiffer penalties?

You need to travel along Highglen Road and witness an illegal settlement taking shape opposite the Highglen Shopping Centre. Everything about the area is WRITTEN ILLEGAL but thousands of Harare residents witness the madness including local MPs and councillors. Harare City Officials are aware of the illegal development but looking aside.

It may take them some years to take action BUT why not stop the madness now?Why not destroy foundations and cabins now rather than later?

No doubt many questions than answers as this is a perennial problem loaded with a lot of benefits for the unscrupulous!

Each year new generations come—new people come from rural areas and some returning from the diaspora. These groups are easy prey to illegal settlement land barons. These new people are oblivious to past demolitions experiences and therefore one area can witness successive built ups and demolitions over a prolonged period of time.

We let you build, we let you develop confidence, we even connect electricity lines before coming with bulldozers? This seems the message from local authorities.

For every illegal settlement demolished, there is need for an aircraft disaster review. Who allowed the built up? Who was responsible for monitoring? Why did they turn blind to the problem? Did they benefit from the confusion?

As for the public, some build homes on illegal land knowingly with some setting up nice homes to attract the unsuspecting and gullible—there is also a large percentage of those who sheepishly join the slaughter.

How do we protect those getting burnt for the first time? At schools and colleges, we need Real Estate Literacy—how to buy property, where, why etc. What is an infill stand, what is a title deed, how do people invest in real estate, how do they lose money in real estate etc

The greatest ponzi scheme in Zimbabwe is found in Real Estate and the gap of knowledge means more and more people will keep losing valuable possessions and funds.

Those homes to be demolished in Chitown wont be the last. In the next 5-10 years, expect new homes to crop up on the same grounds and also meeting the same fate. It makes no sense#

From the ZBIN Ponzi Scheme Handbook