Mugabe’s Mafia…
Most of us here in Zimbabwe live in, or on the verge of, bitter poverty. We strive to exist on worthless wages, and the little we do earn we can’t spend because there’s nothing in the shops. Each day is a crisis. We struggle to survive - and some of us don’t succeed.
But there are exceptions. There are those who don’t struggle. There are still some Zimbabweans who glide over our potholes in Mercedes comfort, who live in elegant homes tended by armies of servants, who feed themselves from well-stocked freezers, and who comfort themselves in times of stress by reciting the numbers of their Swiss bank accounts.
They are the Zim Mafia. They are members of a special clique - all of them politicians and officials from our ruling ZANU PF party - who take advantage of their positions of power to rake in millions of US dollars.
Follow the money in Zimbabwe, and you find the guilty men. I’ve spent the last three months following the money. Here is my far-from-comprehensive run-down on the graft, corruption, double-dealing and sheer theft that is the mark of our rulers…
The Sweet Smell of Success
Ever wondered why there’s so little sugar in our shops when we still make so much? Step forward Vice President Joyce Mujuru and Minister of Policy Implementation Webster Shamu. Under their guidance, Scania truck-loads of sugar daily leave the premises of Starafricacorporation en route for Malawi. Some 150,000 tons of sugar exit Zimbabwe that way every week, passing through the Nyamapanda border post with Mozambique, on their way to Malawi.
My source at the border told me: “Those trucks are untouchable. We know not to stop them.” So the trucks roll out and the money rolls in. And it ends in the pockets - or the handbags - of Joyce and Webster. A sweet little scam, safely operated by the very people who are supposed to look after our interests. Thank you, Ministers both.
Where Have All the Flowers Gone?
The answer to that question is, Malaysia, thanks to the good offices of our old friend, Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Gideon Gono. Gideon doesn’t like it to be known that he has a valuable farm in Mazowe, east of Harare, from where he quietly ships out flowers to Malaysia, earning an estimated US$3m a week - an incredible figure, but apparently accurate.
Of course, Gideon, as our top banker, is better known for his skill in money management, both on the official markets and the unofficial. He has been known to manipulate the bank rate to his own and other ministers’ advantage.
This week he issued three well-known foreign currency dealers with $Z20 trillion to buy foreign exchange on the black market, which will be used to purchase Nissan 4×4 vehicles for use by ZANU PF, and only ZANU PF, in the elections next year. Follow this trail, and it leads us to…
The Man at the Wheel
His name is Moses Chingwena, and he is the owner of a car dealership known as Croco Motors. Moses has close ties with ZANU PF, and for some reason that won’t escape any of us, he always wins the tenders to supply government vehicles. Moses is another with more than one string to his bow. His company is a major player in the illicit trade of Marange diamonds, currently being obtained from a mine seized illegally from African Consolidated Resources.
And before we move on from Moses we should mention his close associate Mirirai Chiremba, who makes up an unholy trio with Moses and Gideon Gono. Mirirai buys gold from illegal gold-panners, through a company called Carslone, formed by the RBZ for exactly that purpose. He also acts as a front for Gono’s currency deals, and is the man who actually goes out onto the streets to distribute bags of cash to dealers.
Oranges and Lemons
Last year our grandly named Deputy Minister of Information and Publicity, Bright Matonga, did something he’d rather not distribute any information or publicity about. He invaded an orange farm in Chegutu, 100 kilometres from Harare, called Chigwell, and owned by a white farmer called Beatie. Today those oranges are regularly exported by Bright to Zambia, along with tons of fertiliser - and then both products are imported back into Zimbabwe by the government. Bright takes a slice of the action in both directions of course.
He is also in an unholy partnership with another expansively named minister, the Deputy Minister of Youth Development and Employment Creation, Savior Kasukuwere. Savior owns several fuel stations in the name of his company Comoil, and together he and Bright sell fuel on the black market. And by the way, Savior has a younger brother…
Brothers in Arms
…and that brother is Stan Kasukuwere, a member of Mugabe’s secret police, who must be a favourite of RBZ governor Gideon Gono - we keep coming back to Gideon - because Gideon has just given him the contract to distribute 3,000 tractors and 5,000 ox-drawn ploughs throughout the country. I say “given” but one suspects a certain amount of money changed hands along with the contract. Stan is also in the black market fuel business, and another of his little wheezes is to buy cars from Singapore, and supply them to top government men, somehow escaping payment of any duty.
Cementing a Friendship
Cement is probably the world’s most boring commodity, but in Zimbabwe it can be as good as gold, and twice as valuable. Step forward please, Vice President Joseph Msika and former Army top man and politburo member Vitalis Zvinavashe. Cement is now only available here on the black market, but Joseph and Vitalis top up their incomes by selling it, together with milk, to Botswana and Zambia. As a result they’ve earned so much that they have bought several houses in the best of our suburbs, and now control a large part of the property business.
But cement pays best, and they are currently major suppliers of cement for Operation Garikai, which is the re-building of homes for those dispossessed in Mugabe’s brutal slum clearance scheme known as Operation Murambatsvina. Also big in that particular business is our old friend Joyce Mujuru, with whom, you will remember, we began.
Diamonds Are for Ever
While I mentioned above that Moses Chingwena dabbles in diamonds, the real big names in this highly dodgy trade are two more ZANU PF politicians, the Minister of Interactive Affairs, Chen Chimutengwende, and the MP Christopher Chigumba. This charming pair are believed to have robbed Zimbabwe of millions of US dollars by trading illicitly in the Marange diamonds in Manicaland, in the eastern part of Zimbabwe.
The Gold Rush
Political rivals they may be, but when it comes to the subject of gold, they are brothers in arms. I’m talking about retired General Solomon Mujuru, husband of Joyce, see above, and presidential hopeful and political strongman Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Emmerson is said to possess more gold than Gideon’s Reserve Bank. He controls the gold-rich Kwekwe area, while he shares the spoils with Solomon in Kadoma and other gold producing areas. Solomon Mujuru, who leads the only opposition to Mugabe within ZANU PF, is also big in diamonds. He is a shareholder in River Ranch Mine, a Beitbridge diamond mine which he took at gunpoint from the owners, Adele and Mike Farquhars. The Farquhars are fighting back legally, but not getting very far. And no wonder - the Attorney General, Sobusa Gula-Ndebele, is a close relative of Mujuru.
And so it goes. What I’ve presented here is doubtless only a small part of the tangled web of corruption, chicanery and graft as practised by our leaders. I’ve probably only scratched the surface. If you can add to our knowledge of the Zim Mafia, we need to hear from you. One day, perhaps in the not-so-distant future, there will be a reckoning; a day when we confront Mugabe and his assorted crooks, and make them an offer they can’t refuse.
(Source: Received by email from a fellow African Crisis columnist. For some reason, I think this was written by a John Winter, but once I receive confirmation, I will endeavour to place a link in the posting… RE)
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September 2nd, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Where is your evidence
September 2nd, 2008 at 12:54 pm
I am surprised that you should ask for evidence. Which part of Mugabe’s 28 year rule did you miss? Which part of the Gukurahundi did you miss, or Operation Murambatsvina?
The idea that Mugabe runs a ‘mafia’-like establishment has been long in evidence.
He organises that atrocities are carried out and then ensures that the backs of those that have committed those atrocities are protected. He is intent on staying in power only to ensure that he himself does not face charges in a criminal court.
‘debvhu