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Listed agri-industrial firm CFI Holdings Limited has allegedly failed to allocate stands from its residential development Suncrest Park nearly a decade after selling them to prospective homeowners. The diversified group put the project on the market in 2015, expecting to complete it by October 2016. But those who purchased the residential stands at a price of US$12 600 have expressed

 

THE ZIMBABWE Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) has quashed speculation that it is engaged in “catch and release” practice in corruption cases. Speaking to Chronicle last week in Bulawayo, Zacc spokesperson Commissioner Thandiwe Mlobane said the catch-and-release allegations are arising from a lack of understanding of the justice delivery process. “Zacc has the mandate to receive all complaints

Source: Corruption watch: Gold Mafia: Uebert Angel’s PR disaster – The Standard

Uebert Angel

Uebert Angel is, easily, the man of the moment, for all the wrong reasons.

He was recently outed by the Al Jazeera undercover investigative team for trying to aid gold and money laundering using his overestimated diplomatic immunity.

Straight on camera, he admitted to his willingness to use his diplomatic passport to smuggle and launder an incredible US$1.2 billion dollars through his red-taped bag.

Of course, one wonders what kind of diplomatic bag that would be, given the fact that even a two-tonne truck wouldn’t be big enough to ferry that amount of cash.

He hollered on more in his naïve bid to convince what he thought were prospective Chinese gold and money washers.

Unsuspecting that he was being taped, he claimed that he was, in practice, the number two to President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

He even called the president’s wife and niece in the presence of the investigatives to organise for the mobilisation of dirty gold. And he told us that the president was more than ready to get kickbacks to facilitate the laundering.

All that has backfired and this fake prophet and conman is now running like a cobra without a hood. Since Al Jazeera started running its four-part documentary on gold and money laundering in Africa, Angel has embarked on a hugely unhelpful self-serving PR campaign to rescue his already soiled image.

Seeing that the media wasn’t too ready to get spooked by government threats, Angel took things to another level. This time around, he hired one of Zimbabwe’s leading lawyers, Lovemore Madhuku, to do a presser. Madhuku was clear on his mission. He wasn’t there to legally defend Angel, but to just tell the world what the self-styled prophet thought was worth saying given the circumstances.

In this regard, Madhuku was just being Angel’s PR officer, not legal counsel. Which is absurd, because who on earth hires a lawyer to do a PR job? Or was Angel thinking that the world would balk at the idea that a lawyer was speaking for him?

Not that it matters that much. Lawyers have a keen eye for dollar signs. They will defend the devil, complete with his four horns, if that’s what it’s going to take. They won’t even mind if hell itself is going to be the courtroom, because no heat is bigger than the money. They will insist that the devil is innocent till proven guilty. Seeing, as it is, that judgment day is yet to come.

Of course, the Madhuku presser was a zoo circus. Through the lawyer, Angel—apparently with the blessings of the government and an equally embattled president—weirdly claimed that his engagements with the undercover journalists was a national intelligence operation meant to expose the intentions of the “investors”. That claim came with a huge cost on the reputation of our intelligence agencies. Let’s assume, for argument’s sake, that things were as Angel wanted us to believe.

Didn’t he see that all he was saying was that our national security is dumb and shoddy? According to him, there came a time when it was realised that there was need to investigate if the “investors” were who they said they were.

But then, do you do that by sending Angel to claim that he is acting on behalf of the president to launder money and gold and even demonstrate that the president is/was a baron parceling out vast tracts of land to foreigners on the basis of a mere phone call? To even call the first lady and seek her help in doing the laundry?

Have a look. If intelligence wanted to know who the “investors” were, there was one simple thing to do. Just dig up their backgrounds without them knowing. It’s a mission that didn’t require a full week to accomplish.

Then the mother of all PR disasters. Just recently, Angel resorted to crossborder loudmouths to do his bidding. These are Alpheous Nxumalo, the Eswatini government spokesperson, and Harry Kalaba, the former Zambian foreign affairs minister between 2014 and 2018.

Nxumalo, right from the start, was wishy-washy about the context in which he was speaking in defence of Angel. He acknowledged that he was the government spokesperson, but then got somewhat hazy when he said that he also was in the habit of monitoring international developments. That sounded like a foreign affairs job, though. But you notice a painful attempt by Nxumalo to try and delink himself from his real job. A vain attempt to sound as if he wasn’t talking on behalf of the Eswatini government.

Nxumalo must just have served his breath. Talking about himself monitoring international dynamics was as superfluous as it was awkward. He should just have left things at him being the government spokes. Because, you see, that’s one thing he failed to escape.  The spokes said many clumsy things. Angel must be celebrated rather than vilified because he is a sanctions-buster working to bring investment to Zimbabwe. He did nothing immoral, untrustworthy  or illegal when he talked to Al Jazeera.

The journalists who recorded him had a sinister political motive to wound and assassinate his reputation, so the documentary is a “damp squid”. Angel was simply trying to bring money into Zimbabwe.

There is nothing wrong with Angel lying that he can sign treaties on behalf of the president because diplomats always do that kind of thing.

At first, you are tempted to conclude that using Nxumalo to speak in defence of Angel and against sanctions is a deliberate Zimbabwean government attempt to pre-emptively lobby fellow Sadc countries against the revelations of gold and money laundering and preserve the southern African bloc’s shameful position that sanctions are what is to blame for Zimbabwe’s economic woes.

This makes sense if you think of Nxumalo as someone who is speaking on behalf of the kingdom government. In which case the government spokes would be interpreted as presenting an official Eswatini position. This would make further sense because Sadc as a grouping has been rallying behind Zimbabwe for the removal of sanctions. Which would mean that Eswatini is being used as a pawn by Zimbabwe to keep the anti-sanctions narrative alive.

However, a closer look shows that the video-recorded statement by Nxumalo is merely a self-serving propaganda attempt to benefit Angel as an individual. That comes, mainly, from the fact that the statement is exclusively about Angel. It deliberately or inadvertently skips the broader story on gold and money laundering as given by Al Jazeera and chooses to focus on Angel so as to absolve him.

I doubt very much that Nxumalo was officially cleared by the Eswatini government to make such a scandalous statement. For, as we all know now, Angel was not working to bring clean money to Zimbabwe. On his own words, he was trying to bring dirty money—more than a billion—to Zimbabwe for a commission. That’s immoral, contrary to what Nxumalo seeks us to believe. Here in Zimbabwe, a mere intention to commit an act of crime is criminal. It’s what they call mens rea, or guilty mind.  So, also contrary to Nxumalo, Angel acted criminally by trying to organise the smuggling of cash and gold.

In any case, Nxumalo must have remembered that the Zimbabwean government has already frozen Angel’s accounts to facilitate investigations into the revelations coming out of the Al Jazeera documentary. That’s partial acknowledgement of the possibility of criminality on the part of Angel and the other mafia and, certainly, lack of probity on his part.

So, if Nxumalo is speaking on behalf of the Eswatini government, what part are they on a chicken, as we say here, to be loudly speaking in his defence? But as already said, it would be the weirdest thing for the Eswatini government to okay such a statement.

Which implies, then, that Nxumalo was under some sort of influence from Angel to sing like that, possibly for some supper or a spiritual deliverance. People may not know this, but Angel has delivered his fake miracles in Eswatini before and it wouldn’t be too wild to guess that Nxumalo was one of the “beneficiaries”.

Put more crudely, there is a possibility that Angel bribed Nxumalo in one way or another for him to quack like that.

You see Kalaba, the former foreign affairs minister, exposing himself exactly the same way as Nxumalo. He also speaks on video in a grandstanding interview. Kalaba makes the weird claim that diplomats — to include fake ambassadors like Angel — have a licence to do “all sorts of things” to attract investment and, as it were, bust sanctions. Really? “All sorts”?

Like Nxumalo, he accuses Al Jazeera and the media that has reported on Angel’s shenanigans of holding ulterior motives. For him, the issue of the high-level corruption that is involved doesn’t matter. Why he decides to also speak exclusively in defence of Angel boggles the mind. So it’s also highly likely that he has been incentivised to speak for Angel.

*Tawanda Majoni writes in his personal capacity and can be contacted on majonitt@gmail.com 

Source: Exposed: Porous borders and graft fuel drugs, fake medicines smuggling – The Standard

Vehicles coming from Zambia being searched at Kariba border post recently

Zambian Johnstone Mwelwa* frequently drives into Zimbabwe for “business” via, Kariba or Chirundu border posts and he does so with ease.

Due to his consistent travels through the designated ports of entry, Mwelwa has become habituated to all the immigration formalities.

He is now on first name basis with members of the security forces and Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) officers, among others.

“During my first days crossing into Zimbabwe, it was difficult as you had to go through all border processes,” Mwelwa told this reporter in Nyamhunga, Kariba recently.

“As I became familiar with the processes and the people who work here, it became easy for me to cross into Zimbabwe.”

Mwelwa is a member of one of the syndicates involving Zambian and Zimbabwean nationals aided by revenue authority and customs officials as well as security forces from both sides of the Zambezi River to smuggle goods from Zambia.

He has a specific duty, to carry goods across the border.

Investigations by The Standard with support from the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe under the Investigative Journalism Fund showed that the border posts at the dam wall in Kariba and Chirundu are major smuggling routes.

The month-long investigations included observations, and undercover interviews with smugglers in Kariba and Chirundu as well as in Harare and other cities.

How it is done

Popularly known as magumaguma, smugglers have become so daring that they bypass formalities at designated ports of entry while others evade security forces patrols by crossing Lake Kariba or Zambezi River in the middle of the night.

For eight years Mwelwa has been working with a syndicate of smugglers that involves nationals from either side of the Zambezi River.

The syndicate, which operates between the two countries’ capital cities Lusaka and Harare, smuggling goods mainly through the official entry points brings all sorts of goods into Zimbabwe from groceries to second-hand clothes, popularly known as mabhero.

Of late, the smugglers have found a niche market in medicinal drugs in Zimbabwe, particularly in Harare and other major cities.

The gang is capitalising on the lack of scanners and equipment that detect small items at the border posts as well as corruption involving officials at the designated ports of entry.

The power of the US dollar is irresistible

Weak regulations and enforcement in both countries are some of the reasons why medicinal drugs, which are bought mostly from Indian-owned pharmacies in Lusaka, are finding their way on to the streets of Harare, while others are sold to pharmacies or private hospitals.

Some of the smuggled medicines and drugs have been described as fake.

The power of US dollar, found with ease in Zimbabwe, is irresistible to the Indian traders in Lusaka, so they do not ask questions when the smugglers buy medicine in bulk and without a prescription.

“Besides, these sex enhancement pills, I also sell tablets that cure flu and other ailments,” said Mai Kuku, a street vendor at the corner of Robert Mugabe Way and Ruzende Street in Harare in a recorded interview with The Standard.

“We get these drugs from Zambia through cross-border trucks or buses.”

This publication established that despite vendors and smugglers’ lack of understanding of drug administration, contrabands of drugs find their way into Zimbabwe illegally and are in great demand.

“I am just a transporter,” Mwelwa said.

“In most cases, I don’t know what I would be transporting into Zimbabwe.

“We are just chasing the US dollar in Zimbabwe.”

Smuggling syndicates are on the prowl

A recent visit by The Standard to Kariba established that some of the smuggled goods were “easily” passing through the border post and stored at Nyamhunga People’s Market, a council-run marketplace in the town’s most populous suburb.

At the Kariba border post, which is less busy compared to Chirundu, cars with Zambian and Zimbabwean registration numbers ferrying goods go through checkpoints manned by Zimra, customs and security officials without much scrutiny. There are hardly any roadblocks between Nyamhunga residential area and Kariba border post, a distance of 13,2km.

“Roadblocks are found on the highway to Harare,” Mwelwa said.

“We hardly have roadblocks on the road to Nyamhunga, in case we encounter one; we pay our way through.”

The goods are offloaded at the marketplace or at Nyamhunga shopping centre before they are transported by buses at night to Harare and other places.

Buses popularly used by smugglers leave Kariba’s Nyamhunga Bus Terminus from 9pm.

After 9pm the buses then depart at two-hour intervals.

“We normally load a lot of items on the buses that travel to Harare, but we wouldn’t know the contents,” said a tout at Nyamhunga Bus Terminus.

“At times we would hear later that some ‘hot’ (illegal) items have been spotted by the police at Makuti, but these people do not tell us what would be inside.

“What I want is my money for loading; I don’t care whether the load is ‘hot’ or genuine.

 “However, it’s correct that smuggled goods are transported using these buses, because there are instances where we hear that the buses carrying smuggled goods have been intercepted by police.”

This publication witnessed a hive of activity at Nyamhunga Bus Terminus between 6pm and 9pm as people loaded goods on Harare-bound buses, during a recent visit as part of this investigation.

“The buses are popular with fish traders and smugglers are taking advantage of these buses that travel at night because there are a few police roadblocks along the way,” Richard Chitsa*, one of the passengers on one Harare-bound bus told The Standard.

“I come here every fortnight to buy fish and I travel with these buses, but you will find most of us fish traders, we would be having receipts to prove that our goods are genuine.”

Chitsa said he has witnessed police intercepting buses with smuggled goods, but he said most of the time, money changes hands at roadblocks.

“Bus crews are the masterminds of this; smugglers pay them to facilitate easy passage at roadblocks,” he said.

Corruption taking its toll

Despite having 24-hour roadblocks at Quarry, just close to Kariba Airport, Makuti and other towns along the route, smuggled goods have always found their way to Harare.

At Makuti, viewed as a “no-nonsense roadblock”, a Harare-bound bus is detained for a few minutes and without any search, the police allow it to proceed.

According to Terrence Banda*, a Kwekwe-based cross-border trader, police at Makuti are more concerned about traffic coming from Chirundu.

He said Chirundu border post personnel were integral in the smuggling of goods coming into Zimbabwe from Zambia.

“When we get to the border post from the Zambian side, we give our goods to taxi drivers who take them across the border.

“They have become smuggling experts,” Banda said.

“The taxi drivers work in cahoots with border post staff and they charge you from US$50 depending on the size of the contraband.

“You will get your items on the Zimbabwean side, but it’s risky.

“However, it’s less risky and cheaper when it is being done by bus drivers.

“Normally, there is a roadblock at Chirundu, just after the border post and another one at Makuti where you only pay the driver if you are carrying ‘hot’ items.”

The driver and conductor deal with the police.

When contacted for comment two weeks ago, police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi requested questions in writing.

“Right now I am in Bulawayo, put your questions in writing so that tomorrow I ask my team to look at them and respond to you,” Nyathi said.

However, Nyathi had not responded to the questions by the time of going to print.

Travelling to Zambia to buy drugs is a choice

Banda said he has since created links with drug suppliers in Lusaka who can send him goods via cross-border trucks.

“I can now send money to Zambia via money transfer platforms to the supplier in Lusaka, who in turn gives the ‘stuff’ to a cross-border truck driver,” he said.

Banda said medicinal drugs were among the goods being smuggled easily into the country, especially through Chirundu border post.

The drugs being smuggled include Co-trimoxazole, Brufen, Pethidine, Azithromycin, Tenoric-50, Depo-Provera, Doxycycline, Benzylpenicillin and Diazepam, among others.

Male enhancement pills and family planning pills are some of the drugs on high demand in Zimbabwe.

There are many ways to kill a cat

A retired lake patrol officer James Junza* said smuggling was done by organised transnational criminal groups.

“The smugglers’ modus operandi is diverse and highly sophisticated,” he said.

“They don’t just wake up and get into the boats and load their goods.

“They work with security forces on the Zambian side, who allow them to load their goods on the harbours.

“This is done at night and most of the boats used would have been hired from companies or owned by the smugglers.”

Junza said smuggling was done across the lake at night mainly via Msampakaruma Island.

“They do everything possible to evade patrol teams on the lake and they go via the islands and other fishing camps.”

However, Junza said smuggling across the lake was risky, compelling most people to smuggle goods through designated ports of entry by bribing border post authorities.

A  Harare cross-border truck driver Austin Kaseke* in an undercover interview confirmed that he was part of syndicates smuggling goods, including medicinal drugs into the country from Zambia.

“It is difficult to pass through Chirundu border post when carrying illegal items during the day,” he said.

“We have managed to smuggle in goods at night before the border closes at 10pm.

“You just call your point person who works at the border and they tell you the right time to come.

“I normally pass through the border at 9pm when there are few eyes.”

Kaseke, who has been driving cross-border trucks for nearly two decades, said he does not mind what he would be carrying most of the time as long it is not guns or explosives.

“For those tablets that you are talking about, we are not concerned about the storage or temperature, we are much concerned about crossing the border to the other side,” he said.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) trafficked medical products kill almost half a million sub-Saharan Africans every year.

The transnational organised crime threat assessment also found that as many as 267 000 deaths per year in the region were linked to falsified and substandard anti-malarial medicines.

In addition, up to 169 271 are linked to falsified and substandard antibiotics used to treat severe pneumonia in children.

Weak enforcement

Despite Zambia and Zimbabwe having medicine regulatory statutes, illegal movement of medicinal drugs has become the order of the day.

According to the Zambian Medicines and Allied Substances (Importation and Exportation) Regulations, 2017, a person who intends to import or export any medicine or allied substance shall apply to the Zambia Medicines Regulatory Authority (Zamra) for a permit upon payment of the prescribed fee.

Zamra regulates and controls the manufacture, importation, storage distribution, supply, sale and use of medicines and allied substances.\

In Zimbabwe, no person shall import into, or export from the country any registered medicine otherwise than in accordance with the terms and conditions of a permit issued by the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ), according to the Medicines and Allied Substances Control (Import and Export of Medicines) (Amendment) Regulations, 2017 (SI No 99 of 2017).

Zamra could not be reached for comment, but the Pharmaceutical Society of Zambia, a professional body that serves to represent the interests of Zambian pharmacists and pharmacy technologists, requested the in writing.

The questions sent via WhatsApp early this month had not been responded to at the time of going to print.

MCAZ public relations officer Davidson Kaiyo said his organisation was working with a number of law enforcement agencies in curbing the smuggling of medicines in and out of the country.

“These agents include Zimra, ZRP, CID Drugs, port health officials and National Prosecuting Authority [NPA] officials,” Kaiyo said.

“On a regular basis, the authority moves around the country holding training sessions with these stakeholders to conscientise them on issues to do with medicine regulations and laws as well as their implementation.”

Kaiyo said MCAZ also carries out enforcement activities with the police moving around the country carrying out raids of illegal sale of medicines.

“We also carry out awareness sessions in the media against the smuggling of drugs or medicines,” he said.

Zimra did not respond to questions.

However, two years ago, the government’s revenue collecting arm, in a bid to ensure that the borderline was secure, appointed a manager responsible for border surveillance.

To strengthen surveillance at the designated ports of entry government promised to deploy drones at the country’s border posts.

A 2020 report by Parliament’s portfolio committee on defence, home affairs and security services on the status of border posts in Zimbabwe revealed that lack of equipment to detect smuggling of goods and corruption were fuelling smuggling at the border posts.

“The committee also learnt that the Zimbabwe Republic Police in its quest to prevent and detect smuggling of goods does not have the expertise to monitor and interpret scan images,” reads the report.

“This leaves the organisation with no means to verify the contents of containerised consignments; hence a request was made for capacity building.

“The committee was informed that corruption involving immigration officials was rampant at border posts.”

According to statistics presented to the portfolio committee on defence, home affairs and security services, out of a total of 186 immigration officials who were implicated in corruption in 2020, 177 were convicted and only nine were acquitted.

Another 2019 report by the portfolio committee on budget, finance and economic development following a tour of six of the country’s border posts to familiarise with the operations of Zimra, noted that despite surpassing revenue targets every year, the revenue performance record did not reflect the situation on the ground, given that the country’s borders are known to be porous.

The parliamentarians said poor border policing led to revenue leakages through acts of smuggling, bribery, under-invoicing and under-declarations at the border posts.

“The smuggling of goods across our ports of entry and borders is rife because of unmanned borders as small smugglers evade ports of entry and smuggle goods,” said Edwin Mushoriwa, who is a member of the committee on budget, finance and economic development.

“There is an organised syndicate of corrupt government workers, who are bribed at the borders and ports of entry by smugglers with a view to evade tax.”

Mushoriwa said there was lack of coordination among government agencies leaving loopholes for smuggling at the border posts.

He noted that the political elite smuggle goods using their offices and under the cover of diplomatic immunity.

An official at the border said government should take note of the recommendations made by the portfolio committee on budget, finance and economic development that it is imperative Zimra and other stakeholders at the border posts be adequately equipped with the proper tools of trade such as computers, scanners, drones, surveillance cameras and vehicles.

He added that there was a need to build the capacity of security forces and border posts personnel including police manning roadblocks along the highway to curb corruption.

* Not real names

*This story is published under the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe Investigative Journalism Fund.