THE dramatic arrest and subsequent prosecution of suspended Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) president Henrietta Rushwaya has lifted the lid on the cutthroat gold trafficking underworld dominated by two major syndicates with strong connections in Zanu PF, government and security establishments.
Rushwaya was arrested at Robert Gabriel Mugabe
International Airport on Wednesday last week where she was found with a 6kg
gold contraband destined for Dubai.
Investigations by the Zimbabwe Independent over the past
week revealed that the syndicates, run by four main gold buyers, have roped in
powerful politicians and senior government officials. The buyers have
established deep roots in all four state policing units responsible for
minerals and precious stones, namely the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP), the
Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) and
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), which they have exploited to siphon gold
and other precious minerals outside the country for personal benefit.
Official sources told the Independent that although this
practice has been going on for many years, the smuggling rackets have
particularly scaled up their monkeyshines in the past two years. This is even
reflected by dwindling deliveries to Fidelity Printers — an RBZ subsidiary
which is the sole legal gold buyer in the country.
Sources further said Rushwaya’s case, which has already
seen six more people arrested — including intelligence and police officers as
well as a Pakistani tycoon Ali Mahommed arrested — has also opened a new
frontier for Zanu PF factional bickering after President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s
wife Auxilia was named by an intelligence officer, Gift Karanda, as being the
co-owner of the gold along with his son Collins.
Auxilia, however, responded to the allegation by denying
the ownership of the ingots and distanced her son from any wrongdoing.
As reported by the Independent in the past two years, there
is a simmering power struggle between President Mnangagwa, who is also Zanu
PF’s president and first secretary, and his highly ambitious deputy Constantino
Chiwenga, since the two strongmen conspired to overthrow the late former
president Robert Mugabe in a military coup in November 2017.
Chiwenga is widely seen as leader of a faction in Zanu PF
and is reportedly itching to take over from the 78-year-old incumbent, who is
planning to seek a second term in 2023.
Zanu PF has roundly endorsed Mnangagwa as the party’s
presidential candidate in the 2023 election.
Since the November 2017 coup, Mnangagwa’s camp has been
working to emasculate Chiwenga’s power base by trimming his influence in the
military and other state departments. Mnangagwa has been making sweeping
changes in the military and reassigning those perceived to be loyal to the
Vice-President.
However, the former Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander, who
orchestrated the coup, remains influential in the military and in Zanu PF.
Tension between the two has escalated dramatically over the
past few months amid intense jostling for positions during the ongoing
restructuring exercises, particularly the upcoming District Co-ordinating
Committee (DCC) elections. Chiwenga is also Health minister.
Sources this week said the implication of Auxilia and her
son was a carefully calculated revenge move by Chiwenga’s camp after the former
military man was besmirched last month when his deputy at the ministry John
Mangwiro was accused of corruptly influencing the awarding of a Covid-19
supplies tender worth US$5,6 million.
Chiwenga and Mangwiro are close allies as they both hail
from Mashonaland East and Mangwiro is the vice-president’s personal doctor.
“The idea is to soil each other as much as possible to
affect their standing and depreciate their suitability for office. It’s a
complex mind game at play,” an intelligence source said this week.
“Remember Chiwenga was linked to the Mangwiro corruption
allegations and they just had to find a way of tainting each other. The truth
is that people from both camps are deeply involved in the smuggling not only of
gold, but other minerals like diamonds through these cartels run mainly by
foreign dealers but this time around, one camp smelt blood and acted swiftly
and smartly.
“From the information we have, she was sold out by a member
of the cartel from the security establishment who tipped the MI and by the time
she arrived at the airport, everything was known and they had an easy catch.”
Rushwaya was arrested by military intelligence officers
after police officers manning the airport refused to do so out of fear,
especially following the switching off of CCTV cameras, which indicated there
was a pre-planned move involving powerful people to clear her path.
Another source said Rushwaya unsuccessfully tried to bribe
the Military Intelligence officers in order to be released.
“She even attempted to pay US$5 000 to four MI officers who
arrested her after other tricks failed”
A senior Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) official also told
the Independent this week that gold smuggling is currently at its peak after it
accelerated in 2018. Figures supplied by the official also indicate a sharp
decline in gold deliveries to Fidelity over the past two years.
“The biggest problem is that of syndicates involving top
government officials and those in the security establishment,” the official
said.
“There are four policing units which are supposed to ensure
compliance, what are they doing? Why are they not investigating and arresting
people.” According to the official, there has been a nine-tonne decline in gold
deliveries to Fidelity since 2018.
“In 2018, Zimbabwe was receiving 34 tonnes deliveries and
now the Chamber of Mines is projecting production levels of 25 tonnes. The
production levels should be higher than 34 tonnes because of higher market
prices,” the official said
The source further indicated that the country was most
likely producing more than 34 tonnes, but delivering much less.
“The rest of it is being smuggled out of Zimbabwe. He said
in 2018 the price was US$45 000 per kg and now it is fetching up to US$60 000
per kg and not less than US$55 000 per kg. This means there is no way
production would be going down as is happening,” the source added.
“Gold is currently earning the country around US$80 million
monthly and as such, smuggling is a lost opportunity for Zimbabwe to increase
our reserves. The biggest problem is that our biggest licensed buyers are
foreign. There are not more than 20 buyers and of these, five are foreign and
are the biggest.”
Another source in the mining sector suggested that the
government cancels with immediate effect the licences of the buyers to plug the
leakages.
“The problem is that of enforcement of compliance. What the
government needs to do is to cancel the licences of the all buyers and
capacitate Fidelity with cash to buy directly from the miners. They need to
give Fidelity between US$10 million and US$15 million a week to buy the gold
directly from the small scale and artisanal miners, just like what the Grain
Marketing Board does with maize,” he said..
“Those units that are supposed to police and enforce
compliance of the laws of the land should be more vigilant, otherwise the
country will continue to lose billions to smuggling. There has to be political
will to stop the smuggling. Revenue from gold can help get the country out of
this economic mess.”
Efforts to get comments from RBZ governor John Mangudya
were fruitless. Zimbabwe Independent
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