Zimbabwe's finance minister was arrested on Saturday on charges of dealing in foreign currency, police said, the first senior official in President Robert Mugabe's government to be detained in a corruption crackdown.
Police spokesman Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said Chris Kuruneri had been 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).
Bvudzijena gave no further details.
State television said the police probe against Kuruneri, a member of the central committee of Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party, began after a South African newspaper reported that he was building a mansion in the holiday resort of Cape Town.
The government in January launched an anti-corruption drive, which Mugabe blames, alongside with sabotage by is opponents, for the country's economic woes - characterised by fuel, food and foreign exchange shortages.
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