Aguy Georgias

Political career

Aguy was a member of the Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front. He served in government as Deputy Minister of Public Works and National Housing as well as Deputy Minister of Economic Development.^[6]

Stance against Sanctions

Georgias made several remarks on his stance on sanctions. He argued that the sanctions were target due to the fact that Zimbabwe ruined relations with the outside world by walking out of the Commonwealth. He also stated that although it was true that Zimbabwe could not borrow money from The World Bank, this was not because of sanctions but because the country had not serviced its debt with the institution for close to a decade as of 2003.^[7] He also pointed out that the sanctions were targeted because bilateral trade between Zimbabwe and USA had doubled over a period of five years. The senator summed up his argument citing that the sanctions approach was just like the carrot and stick approach, if Zimbabwe did things the proper way it would not be on a collision path with the EU block.

Goergias also fought against the deportation of children from the United Kingdom where they were pursuing their studies. The children were scheduled for deportation on the basis of their father being a ZANU-PF member who had been blacklisted.^[8] Although he was reportedly removed from the sanctions list, Georgias noted that for the five years that he was on the list his business interests suffered significantly.^[4]

Controversy

HSBC bank account

Around 2007 it was speculated that Aguy Georgias had ties to a bank, HSBC, which had come under fire for facilitating the laundering of money. Georgias was said to have been among the 189 Zimbabweans that had an account with the bank. It was also stated that the account was eventually closed after the balance had reached zero.^[9]

POTRAZ board

Aguy was part of the POTRAZ board that was fired in 2015 on allegations of corruption.^[10] Georgias was fired together with other board members over issues ranging from gross abuse of financial resources and poor corporate governance. Georgias came out denying the allegations, stating that if he had done anything wrong a report should be made to the police and he arrested.^[11]

Telecel Airtime Purchases

In 2011, Aguy Georgias acting on behalf of his company Trinity Engineering, is said to have entered into partnership together with his son born out of wedlock, Russell Karimazondo and his company Maxifix to purchase airtime from Telecel Zimbabwe and resell the said airtime vouchers. To do this Trinity Engineering mortgaged its property and secured a bond allowing Maxifix to take airtime in excess of $600,000. When Maxifix failed to service the loan, the property was registered for transfer into Telecel's name, to which Georgias launched a court appeal stating that he was not a part of this agreement and his signature was forged. Karimazondo allegedly confessed to having forged his father's signature but later re-cantered his statement.^[12] Georgias lost the case and at the time of his death had lodged an appeal at the Supreme Court.^[13]

Death

On the morning of Friday 18 December 2015, Senator Aguy Georgias, while admitted at AMI Hospital in Harare succumbed to heart and kidney failure. He had not been well, having spent one and a half months seeking medical attention in Cape Town, only to return to Harare and die a week later.^[6] He was subsequently declared a national hero, President Mugabe "describing him as a visionary entrepreneur and shrewd businessman who was determined to see justice being delivered to all".^[2]

References