SURELY our government has a way of shoving the foot into its mouth.
In fact, maybe the Information ministry should be renamed the Embarrassments portfolio, if all things are to go by.
Yesterday, we carried a story from a report by The Sentry, whereby a South African businessman, Errol Gregor, partnering the Zimbabwean government for an oil pipeline plan from Beira in Mozambique to Zimbabwe has been linked to a US$45 million fraud scandal in Ghana.
Gregor is said to be involved in a multi-billion-dollar oil pipeline project between Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
“The involvement of a figure like Gregor in such a major government project should give pause,” said Nick Donovan, senior investigator at The Sentry.
“This case highlights the need for more transparency, rigorous oversight and active international anti-corruption efforts when it comes to infrastructure development involving countries plagued by predatory business operators and entrenched kleptocracy.
“The fact that a UK bank and South African pension funds may have inadvertently supported a possible multi-million-dollar bribery scheme heightens the urgency. This should be a wake-up call for more aggressive due diligence and, where appropriate, hard-hitting accountability.”
That is case number one.
Elsewhere, the United States Department of Justice has unsealed charges against two individuals Kenneth Newcombe of Santa Barbara, California, and Tridip Goswami, a resident of India involved in a multi-million-dollar fraud scheme, with potential implications for projects in Zimbabwe.
The pair allegedly fraudulently obtained carbon credits worth tens of millions of dollars and secured an investment exceeding US$100 million through deceptive practices.
Their company, CQC Impact Investors LLC’s involvement in Zimbabwe adds a layer of international concern to the case.
Last year, Al Jazeera ran a four-part investigative documentary on gold smuggling in Zimbabwe titled Gold Mafia, which looked at who could move how many kilogrammes of gold, their syndicates, the power behind such people.
At the end of the day, we were left enthused that Zimbabwe was, indeed, a laundromat.
A haven of all corrupt deals that can happen in a country.
Anyone who wants to wash their dirty money can just come to this tea pot-shaped country and discreetly do their deed and leave unnoticed.
But these things do not happen in a vacuum.
One way or the other, someone in some high places has to know something.
Someone is choosing to look the other way and let things happen.
The level of corruption we have reached is unprecedented.
To make matters worse, we go on to hire international public relations organisations to clean up our image.
Who is fooling who here?
Just a few days ago, Harare hired financial and legal advisers to help it navigate potential talks with international creditors over the US$21 billion it owes.
Paris-based boutique firm GSA & Co SAS, founded by a former Rothschild & Co banker, and law firm Kepler Karst, which specialises in debt restructuring and insolvency, signed engagement letters to provide Zimbabwe with advice on debt management, per reports.
By September 2019,the Zimbabwean government had hired a fourth lobby and public relations firm in a desperate bid to spruce up its battered international image and bolster the diplomatic re-engagement drive that has fallen off the rails amid a growing backlash over the deteriorating human rights situation in the country.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration engaged London-based BTP Advisers — which joined United States-based Mercury International Limited, Ballard Partners and Avenue Strategies — in a quest to help Zimbabwe return to the community of nations after decades of isolation.
However we try to maintain an innocent face in the public, like a hyena, there is some blood dripping on our mouths.
Let us clean up our acts first and get to move on.
