Mugabe arrests his Finance Minister

Police spokesman Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said Chris Kuruneri was picked up early on Saturday and would be charged with corruption, after accusations that he had illegally dealt in foreign currency worth over six billion Zimbabwe dollars (1,38 million).

"The minister was arrested this morning and investigations are going on. It's to do with charges relating to foreign currency dealing," he told Reuters.

Kuruneri, a former deputy finance minister, was promoted in January. His arrest follows an investigation prompted by a South African newspaper report he was building a mansion in Cape Town.

He has previously denied any wrong doing and said the money was legitimately earned from consultancy work done outside Zimbabwe.

In the Zimbabwean media, Kuruneri denied that the money used to construct the Llandudno house had been improperly obtained.

He said the money had been earned from consultancy work he had done abroad.

He claimed that he had raised a lot of foreign currency while working for Mobile Systems International of Britain and Felipe Solano of Spain.

Kuruneri also said he knew the Foreign Exchange Control Act provisions very well since he was a lawyer and could not be found on the wrong side of the law.