| (1) | Mr Christopher Takura Wesley Tande is the founder and main shareholder of Time Bank. Time Bank was incorporated on 16 January 1997 and duly commenced banking operations the same year. Thereafter the Bank operated profitably and lawfully. |
| (2) | However, in 2000 the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) took more than US$ 5 million unlawfully from Time Bank through a wrongful debit into Time Bank’s account in RBZ books. Instead of charging Time Bank interest of about 7% on a foreign loan of US$15 million, the RBZ charged interest of about 70% on such loan and debited Time Bank’s account in RBZ’s books. This prejudiced Time Bank in the form of excessive interest of about 63% and created financial problems for Time Bank. Rightfully, Time Bank disputed the above debit of excessive interest. In 2002, the RBZ under the then Governor, hereinafter referred to as the 1st Governor, agreed to refund the excess interest charged to Time Bank’s account, but his term of office ended before he could implement such an agreement. As a result there were legal disputes between Time Bank and RBZ. By 2004 a new Governor was appointed, hereinafter referred to as the 2nd Governor, to succeed the first Governor. The 2nd Governor reneged on the 1st Governor’s agreement. |
| (3) | Consequently, Time Bank was briefly closed by RBZ and put under a disputed curatorship from 27 October 2004 to 19 May 2006. Thereafter its banking licence was cancelled unlawfully by the RBZ in 2006 resulting in more legal disputes between Time Bank and the RBZ which went on for many years. The placement of Time Bank under curatorship was done without the RBZ refunding the money it owed Time Bank and also the RBZ did not disclose to the public that it owed Time Bank money at the time RBZ closed Time Bank. |
| (4) | After the closure of Time Bank and the unlawful cancellation of Time Bank’s licence, there were a lot of unnecessary difficulties that were placed in the way of Time Bank, its shareholders and directors. | (a) | For example, as part of a plan to stop Time Bank from being re-established, there was a great push by some people to dispossess Time Bank, its shareholders and affiliate companies of the various pieces of land on which they were carrying out housing projects together with Time Bank and this resulted in further legal disputes. | | (b) | Also, various people were sponsored to fight Time Bank including making false allegations against Time Bank or were sponsored to fight the Bank’s shareholders and directors including affiliate companies, as part of a plan to destabilise the Bank. | | (c) | Time Bank, its shareholders, directors, and management, guided by their vision as mentioned before, remained determined to overcome the challenges they faced and re-open the Bank. | |
| (5) | In this regard, Time Bank challenged the curatorship, and in May 2006 the curatorship was ended. |
| (6) | After the end of curatorship, Time Bank, under its Directors and out of its own business policies and values, paid all its known depositors in 2006 and all its staff members their salaries and terminal benefits in 2007 at the prevailing market rates as if it was still operating, despite all the difficulties of that time. Such payment was in line with the Bank’s values, even in difficult times. Also after such payment to depositors and staff, Time Bank was able to concentrate on the fight for its rights. |
| (7) | Despite the false negative allegations against it, Time Bank is the first bank in the history of Zimbabwe, to be able to pay all its known depositors and its staff members, without borrowing from the RBZ, and without new money from its shareholders or without raising new deposits to pay old depositors. This all happened in about 2006 after the end of curatorship when the Zimbabwe Dollar still had reasonable value and before the multi-currencies were introduced in 2009. This shows that Time Bank was financially sound when it was closed unlawfully by RBZ in 2004. Furthermore, it shows that Time Bank values its depositors and staff members, among other things despite the difficulties it faced. |
| (8) | Time Bank also successfully challenged the unlawful cancellation of its licence in court. In 2009 the court reinstated Time Bank’s licence. |
| (9) | The reinstatement of the licence of Time Bank was further confirmed by the Government in 2010. |
| (10) | The courts also ruled on the disputes on various pieces of land mentioned above and returned some of them to Time Bank’s shareholders and affiliate companies to continue their housing projects. |
| (11) | Despite the re-instatement of its licence, Time Bank could not operate because the RBZ, under the 2nd Governor, refused to handover in the normal way the assets, records and affairs of Time Bank from the former curator of Time Bank and RBZ to directors of Time Bank, after the end of the curatorship. |
| (12) | However, in 2015 a new Governor for the RBZ was appointed, hereinafter referred to as the 3rd Governor. The 3rd Governor managed to resolve the long outstanding disputes between the RBZ and Time Bank. The RBZ and Time Bank then signed a Settlement Agreement in 2015. Under such Settlement Agreement the parties agreed among other things, that:- | (a) | Time Bank shall takeover an incomplete handover-takeover list of items, because the RBZ and the former curator of Time Bank could not handover all the assets, documents and affairs of Time Bank. | | (b) | That the RBZ shall repay Time Bank US$5 million plus interest resulting in a total amount of US$10 million being the money which the RBZ took from Time Bank following the above-mentioned wrongful and unlawful debit. | |
| (13) | The decision of the 1st Governor and the 3rd Governor was the same regarding the refund of the sad $5 million to Time Bank. However, for unclear reasons, the decision of the 2nd Governor was different from the decision of the 1st and 3rd Governor. |
| (14) | Time Bank appreciates the resolution of the outstanding disputes, through an amicable settlement agreement with RBZ. However, the settlement amount of US$10 million was paid in the form of Treasury Bills which had a future maturity date, and hence the settlement amount was affected by the high inflation and exchange rate devaluation as the treasury bills were later on regarded as denominated in local currency. At the end of it, the value US$10 million was far less than the amount of US$5 million which was initially taken from Time Bank. |
| (15) | Thereafter the Reserve Bank issued a Public Notice in 2017 notifying the public that Reserve Bank was agreeable to Time Bank resuming banking operations , subject to a pre-opening inspection. In 2018 Time Bank also issued a Public Notice in response to the Reserve Bank Public Notice and stated its status including its history. |
| (16) | In October 2022, following a pre-opening inspection, The RBZ issued another Public Notice notifying the public that the RBZ authorised Time Bank to commence banking activities. |
| (17) | Thereafter, in November 2022, Time Bank also issued its Public Notice and advised the public that Time Bank had commenced banking activities with effect from 27 October 2022 following RBZ’s authorisation. |
| (18) | From such historical experiences Time Bank has learnt that in some cases “There is time for everything”. There was a time to fight for its rights and now it is time to rebuild Time Bank. |
