Deputy sports minister Tinomudaishe Machakaire has splashed US$770,000 on a Rolls Royce Phantom – the latest illustration of the gulf between Zimbabwe’s poor and super rich political elites.
The 39-year-old paid GVE London £330,000 for the luxury car
and £30,000 for shipping – about US$495,800 in total, ZimLive understands.
GVE London posted videos on social media confirming that it
had shipped the car to a Zimbabwean minister, but the company did not name
Machakaire. Multiple sources have identified Machakaire as the owner of the
expensive motor.
A source at the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority estimated duty
on the vehicle would be in the region of U$275,000, pushing Machakaire’s total
bill to just over US$770,000.
Machakaire’s transport and logistics company, TinMac
Motors, according to sources, also recently acquired a new fleet of haulage
trucks.
MDC Alliance spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere said: “We continue
to demand radical transparency and a far-reaching international audit of the
offshore networks that enable looting by Zimbabwean ministers and political
elites. They launder the loot by buying supercars while the masses starve.
Corruption is killing us.”
Through TinMac Motors, Machakaire won huge tenders to move
farming equipment and other implements under the US$3 billion Command
Agriculture scheme which a parliamentary committee concluded was carried out
without any accountability.
The Zanu PF government has frustrated a push by the
opposition to audit Command Agriculture expenditure. Former finance minister
Tendai Biti, who chaired the public accounts committee that investigated the
corruption, was hounded out of parliament.
Machakaire is related to Kudakwashe Tagwirei, the millionaire petroleum oligarch whose company, Sakunda Holdings, carried out all procurement under Command Agriculture. The United States government last year imposed sanctions on Tagwirei, citing him for “derailing economic development and harming the Zimbabwean people through corruption.” Zimlive
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