Even as Indigenisation Minister Saviour Kasukuwere vows that there will be no going back on the take-over of banks, another Zanu PF-linked bank has been exposed as being criminally poorly run.

Royal Bank has been forced to surrender its licence amid revelations that the bank was involved in serious abuse of depositors’ funds and "burdened by non-performing insider loans" - depisitors' funds lent to owners and their friends who were not servicing their loans.

It becomes the third bank to close after Kasukuwere's Genesis Bank.

Royal Bank was owned by Peter Chikumba, the former chief executive of Air Zimbabwe who also played a major role in running it aground.

The Herald reported that criminal proceedings were likely against the bank's officials. All are Zanu (PF) cronies.  

David Chapfika, the other Zanu PF indigenisation czar pushing for the takeover of foreign owned banks is also linked to Unibank which failed because of shady dealings.

Chapfika is the chairperson of the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board him and Kasukuwere have been said by the Reserve Bank Governor to be unfit to call for indigenisation because of their past.

He said they they were unfit to preside over the localisation of foreign banks, just like anyone associated with a failed bank is not fit to deal with banking matters or to ever own, run or talk about the ownership of a bank again.

“The fact that the two main proponents (Chapfika and Kasukuwere) of the recent illogical moves have presided over the failure of their two banks before, namely Unibank and Genesis, calls for Solomonic wisdom on the part of Zimbabwe’s population and leadership,” Gono said.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti has said the government needs to be careful with how it proceeds with banks, "otherwise we destabilise the economy."  

The African development Bank has also warned that the indigenisation regulations as they relate to banks, were likely to worsen the availability of capital in Zimbabwe, thus contributing to the economic dowturn.