One of the people that are featured in the damning expose by an international broadcaster for their alleged role in massive money laundering and gold smuggling activities in Zimbabwe has been cleared by Zanu PF to contest for a parliamentary seat.
After initially dismissing the undercover Al Jazeera investigation, the government last week said it will launch investigations into several people involved in the illicit gold trade.
Last month, the Qatar-based broadcaster started airing Gold Mafia, a four-part series by the Al Jazeera Investigative Unit (I-Unit), which showed President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s special envoy Ubert Angel, among other prominent people, offering to launder large amounts of money through illegal gold smuggling.
There were also claims last week that assets belonging to Angel and some of the people named in the investigation had been frozen, but there was scepticism on whether the government was committed to cracking down on the syndicates.
It is against that background that the nomination of Scott Sakupwanya as a Zanu PF candidate in Harare’s Mabvuku constituency will be closely watched to measure the government’s commitment to fight illicit financial flows.
Sakupwanya, who has been photographed with President Emmerson Mnangagwa on a number of times, was described as the country’s number one gold smuggler by Angel in the secret recording by the I-Unit journalists.
The Harare councillor was named in a one minute trailer for the Gold Mafia episode four trailer that is expected to air this week.
Sakupwanya, who is said to be a former driver to Ewan MacMillan alias Mr Gold, has had his life transformed from rags to riches through gold smuggling activities, according to Angel.
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“MacMillan doesn’t control anything,” Angel told undercover Al Jazeera reporters.
“This was his worker cleaning his car. He is the number one now.”
Sakupwanya has been accused of smuggling gold to Dubai through Betterbrands mining company.
Centre for Natural Resources Governance (CNRG) director Farai Maguwu said the Al Jazeera revelations were only a tip of the iceberg.
In July last year, CNRG exposed Sakupwanya for allegedly being responsible for illicit financial flows associated with leakages of an estimated three tonnes of gold, valued at approximately US$157 million every month, or US$1, 9 billion per year.
In its report titled: Zimbabwe’s Disappearing Gold: The Case of Mazowe and Penhalonga, CNRG said Sakupwanya was being sponsored by powerful political elites to buy gold on their behalf in key belts.
CNRG said Sakupwanya was among other rich gold dealers in Mazowe and Penhalonga who were abusing gold licenses, buying gold and delivering less than 50% to Fidelity Printers and Refiners while smuggling the rest to other countries.
“Sakupwanya is not the only one smuggling gold out of the country, but it’s a chain of people,” Maguwu said.
“Smuggling is well coordinated and systematic.
“There is no political will to address the issue of gold smuggling as politicians are also involved.”
Centre for Research and Development director James Mupfumi said smugglers use their political links for criminal activities.
“The Gold Mafia Al Jazeera series has exposed the establishment of kleptocracy in Zimbabwe,” Mupfumi said.
“The documentary has exposed reasons why political elites in government are protecting political elites in government.”
Zimbabwe is said to be losing approximately US$1,5 billion a year to smuggling.
“The situation has worsened as a result of these smugglers amassing wealth and funding themselves into political structures of the ruling party to shield their criminal activities and prosecution,” Mupfumi said.
Sakupwanya was recently forced to close mining operations in Penhalonga following cases of fatal accidents involving artisanal miners.
This publication gathered that government has since allowed Betterbrands to resume operations despite concerns by the local community that they are yet to meet the mining regulations.
Sakupwanya was not responding to calls, WhatsApp and SMS messages sent to him yesterday.
Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), said there was a possibility that proceeds from the illicit gold trade would be used to finance the ruling party’s campaigns ahead of this year’s elections.
“The documentary further raises a serious concern for Zimbabwean citizens that there is a link between the illicit gold trade and political finance intended to capture state institutions in the forthcoming elections which poses a potential threat to the constitutional imperatives and safeguards set out in the constitution,” CCC spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere said in a statement calling for an independent international forensic investigation into the Al Jazeera revelations.
“These safeguards are designed to ensure the best interests of the citizens are served at all times by accountable public officials created for that purpose and not shadowy parallel formations.”
Zanu PF spokesperson Chris Mutsvangwa publicly defended Sakupwanya after Al Jazeera aired the first two episodes of its investigation.
“There is the coterie of lost national soul Hopewell Chin’ono, the incorrigible settler racist David Coltart, the jilted Ewan Macmillan who cannot countenance the new gold trade exploits of Scott Sakupwanya, his erstwhile garden boy,” Mutsvangwa lashed out.
“Finally, there is the dimwit financial illiteracy of dimwit Tendai Biti. They all can huff and puff in the cacophony of fellow detractors.”
MacMillan is one of the gold dealers that were secretly recorded by the Al Jazeera journalists while Biti shared his views on the effects of the rampant smuggling of Zimbabwean gold in the documentary.
It is not clear why Mutsvangwa was lashing out at Coltart and Chin’ono.
