MARYLAND - A South African chrome miner, Zunaid Moti, allegedly paid $3 million to firms linked to the Zimbabwean president Emmerson Mnanagwga and vice president Constantino Chiwenga following a $120 million deal signed in November 2017.
According to The Sentry, an investigative and policy organization that seeks to disable multilateral predatory networks benefiting from violence conflict, repression and kleptocracy, a senior judge of the Supreme Court, a businessman under USA targeted sanctions are also involved in the suspected chrome scam.
In detailed report published on its website, The Sentry said Moti, who bought a 70% stake in African Chrome Fields (ACF) in 2014, formed a joint venture with the Zimbabwe Defence Forces and hired then vice president Mnangagwa’s son as a consultant.
The Sentry’s report indicates that Lishon Chipango, a Zimbabwe Defence Force commander at that time who was also Chiwenga’s alleged frontman, indirectly owned shares in AFC through Spincash Investments, a holding firm owned by Moti. It has a 30% stake in ACF.
Kudakwashe Tagwirei, who is allegedly Mnangagwa’s frontman, paid US$120 million for Spincash’s 30% stake in ACF in 2017 during the time when Mnangagwa and Chiwenga were in the process of toppling the late former President Robert Mugabe.
According to The Sentry, the Spincash deal was followed by a “money-moving operation in which Moti’s companies paid $130 million in 595 installments to a mix of established firms, companies whose records are missing, and politically linked entities in Zimbabwe. In December 2017 and January 2018, the payments included $1 million to Mnangagwa’s farm and $2 million to a company controlled by Chipango and someone reported to be Chiwenga’s niece. In a separate commercial transaction in February 2018, ACF also paid $100,000 to a senior judge, Justice George Chiweshe, as part of a wider deal to mine chrome in concession areas controlled by a firm he chaired.”
Chiwenga, Chiweshe, Tagwirei and Chipango were unavailable for comment as they were not responding to calls on their mobile phones. Presidential spokesperson, George Charamba, was also unreachable on his mobile phone.