SPECIAL REPORT: THE ZIM 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 (left) 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 (right). 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 4x4 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 (left), 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 Svinavashe (right). 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 (left), 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 (right).

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.

Comments

[james]

what an expose.
so with all this infor in puplic domain why are they not un jail
should we suffering Zimbabweans join that filthy gang called Zanu PF for us to have suger for tea.
i knw why they are not at that notorious Chikurubi prison, its because these people are all Shona speaking. if a Ndebele chap makes decent money he or she is whisked to the courts, framed by the Shona people.
but one day we will get them, mark my words.

[james]

what an expose.
so with all this infor in puplic domain why are they not un jail
should we suffering Zimbabweans join that filthy gang called Zanu PF for us to have suger for tea.
i knw why they are not at that notorious Chikurubi prison, its because these people are all Shona speaking. if a Ndebele chap makes decent money he or she is whisked to the courts, framed by the Shona people.
but one day we will get them, mark my words.

[mukuru]

It is well documented that many of the trails lead to zanu pf leaders , what about all the others who have contributed to the "gangster" economy. Mugabe has successfully exploited many people and their thirst for greed and then used their illicit dealings as markers to exploit. Why pick only on the shona- why not look at the greedy whites who started the lust for power. Look at the Bredenkamps, Rautenbachs, De Sa, Davy camps and you will find the same tentacles.

[itso]

THis is what I call journalism. Thanks for this piece. It is wonderful work but this is not about tribe but about corrupt people

[natasha]

Whereto Zimbabwe??? What will happen in the future. I see potholes every road I walk, no electricity and no food yet some people are doing all this to the money we so badly need. What about allegations that David Parirenyatwa, the Minister of Health only provides ARVs to top guys??

[Jackson]

To say the least this expose had made me more angrie and ...nhata dzevanhu manhi !!!!

[Mabhunumuchapera Karikoga Chinembiri]

Its a blame game without a quick solution.Tiri mhata tese for running away from the problem.

[Alecia Raniba]

Don't. worry Zimbabwe...You are not alone -Jamaica has, under the PNP Government joined Mugabe in corruption.

Except that NOW we seem to have a Saviour in the form of the NEW Government - the Jamaica Labor Party (JLP)and its Leader Bruce Golding.

The Peoples National Party under Percival J Patterson has closely emulated the behaviors of President Mugabe..cronyism was the order of the day and Mugabe was invited to Jamaica quite recently to be guest of honor - but they are ousted, if even by a very small margin - if Zimbabweans have the courage and a lot of money to back them, they can get rid of Mugabe and his cohorts too........

[Anon]

James, it is not a question of ethnicity or language - these people are crooks. The Attorney General and his family are Ndebele, some of the others are Shona-speaking.. so what? These people are crooks, it is as simple as that.

[Watcher]

These parasitic creatures are criminals and should be in prison or simply done away with but unfortunitly it's difficult and sometimes impossible to extract justice, if history has taught us anything it is that the meek do not inherit the earth!

[sean]

Pigs- I'd love to see them swing, as I enjoyed watching Saddam drop--- one day, one day.

[Babulous]

There is a special place in Hell already reserved for those people, and being tormented in extreme heat and darkness for eternity is not something to look forward to.

[Mwana Womhlabathi]

A fairly good report. I realise you have since corrected the name of the Oranges man on the pictures to Bright Matonga not Chen which is good.

Second correction, which could have been a typing error on the part of the writer, the retired Army General's surname is Zvinavashe not Svinavashe.

Thanx!

[BULAWAYO]

These shona people are busy killing the country with their corruption, as kjames said , i wonder if most of them are educated or they are just given big position coz of their last names.
Shonas have ruined the country to be frank, they need to vote their father mugabe out

[baba vaKudzai]

HAndizvo chete nagtibatsiranei kuburitsa zvose pachena

[jilly]

This the best I have seen Moses doing. Its is so great yet so sad. May God help Zimbabwe

[Emmanuel]

Brothers of Zimbabwe, do not cry. It is also the same phenomena in Uganda.What is left is to turn back to God and pray.

[Dedan Mashonganyika]

I like the xpose on this blog. However I
am pissed that there are penis-headed ndebeles who think zanu pf means shonas. There are a lot of mother-fucking ndebeles who are politicians and are among those people who are killing us with there thieving. Shonas by virtue of being the majority in this country are the worst affected yet some grade seven tribalists want to think shonaa are the problem. Sometimes you sympathise when some asshole-faced hardcore shonas retaliate but the problem is, not all ndebeles share the view yemhata dzinongotaura that all shonas are zanu pf and therefore responsible for the problems at hand.Give us an xpose yemhata like Dabengwa and Chihuri.

[VaMazibisa]

Saka mati nyika inganakawo here?

[john]

Wonderful work. Lets keep burning and doing what is right

[masterblaster]

You got to take the bull by the horns. Folks have to form trusted alliances and take it bacvk. Lock, stock and barrel, take it back. Do it with numbers and put these guys (her too) up against the wall, ON CNN!!!
How do they sleep at night. What happened to the zulu pride. Where are the decendents of Shaka Zulu. How can pride stoop so low as to starve their own.
Wow. I am awed. I did not thing shit came piled so deep. Keep it up gang. Make us want to kill you and then we will.

We're watching you, shit-pile(s) !!! Don't try and see where we are. Try and see where we should not be and whether or not that's where we are and from where we will killyou..

[Peter Pan]

That guy Chen Chimutengwende looks so squiff-eyed. The power must have gone to his tiny brain

[Despot Observer]

A Brilliant Exposure / Report!
Keep it up.
You will never see a report like this the local Zimbabwe Media.
Reasons : -
Fear; anxiety; infiltration; bootlicking; comradeship; bribery and corruption; incompetence; kickbacks; denial; threats; solidarity; cowardice; beneficiaries of evil and looting; devoid of moral principles and courage; complicity; promoters of cover-ups and insanity.

[Despot Observer]

A Brilliant Exposure / Report!
Keep it up.
You will never see a report like this the local Zimbabwe Media.
Reasons : -
Fear; anxiety; infiltration; bootlicking; comradeship; bribery and corruption; incompetence; kickbacks; denial; threats; solidarity; cowardice; beneficiaries of evil and looting; devoid of moral principles and courage; complicity; promoters of cover-ups and insanity.

[Vic]

There is only one answer to Zim and that is with the Christians! Zimbabwe is full of Christians and yet the Christians allow such corrupt practices to reign in our land. People, we need to pray! But not only that... we must get invoved in the affairs of the country by voting for righteous men and women to lead us. It's a lie from hell that Christians must not get involved in politics! The devil smiles when evil continues to rule in our country. So, to you my fellow Christians, we are the majority, we are the light, let's get rid of this darkness once and for all!!!