From criminals around the President to a President around the criminals

By Luke Tamborinyoka

Sibusiso Busi Moyo, the military face of the Zimbabwe coup, appeared in front of ZBC cameras in a live broadcast in the early hours of Wednesday, 15 November 2017 and announced that the army had taken over. As the nation grappled with that moment of political uncertainty, the military general assured the nation that President Robert Mugabe and his family were safe and that the military operation was only targeting what he called “the criminals around the President.”

In the aftermath of that ominous hour, panic spread in Zanu PF and government— and the so-called criminals around the President scurried for cover, with some of them skipping the border in the dead of the night amid heavy gunfire at their homes as they escaped to safety in that high noon of Zanu PF’s internal power politics.

The sobriquet “criminals around the President” was used by Emmerson Mnangagwa and his allies to refer to a rival G40 faction that was aligned to Mugabe and whose key members included Jonathan Moyo, Grace Mugabe, Saviour Kasukuwere, Ignatius Chombo, Patrick Zhuwawo, Walter Mzembi, Sarah Mahoka, Priscah Mupfumira and other Cabinet Ministers and senior party officials.

Some of the so-called “criminals around the President”, against whom the coup was purportedly mounted, were subsequently arrested and had charges laid against them. These included Saviour Kasukuwere, Jonathan Moyo, Walter Mzembi and Ignatius Chombo, among others.

Dear reader, my point this week is that given the criminals now teeming around ED , it is significant and remains important to remind each other of the precedence set by the army that having criminals milling around the Presidency is enough reason to roll out the military tanks.

There appears to be a palpable contradiction here which seems to show that the whole mantra of “criminals around the President” as the reason for the coup was just but a ruse; an excuse by armed brigands and lootocrats keen to enjoy their own our to pilfer national wealth

In other words, the military set a precedent where having criminals of any sort milling around the Presidency is enough reason for regime change, regardless of the means and method by which that was achieved!

But while some of the “criminals around Mugabe” skipped the border before they were brought to court, it is notable that some of the so-called criminal charges later crumbled, notably the charges against Chombo, Mupfumira, Supa Mandiwanzira and a few others.

I hold no brief for Mugabe, whose longevity in office and whose incompetence and blood-stained legacy of State-sanctioned murders and massive corruption are a matter of public record.

But it is worth noting that the reasons for the removal of Mugabe now sound hollow and appear to have been a self-serving lie by his internal political rivals who were itching for their own hour in the sun to bring their own set of criminals to loot the country’s vast mineral wealth as Mugabe had done, if not worse this time.

I say so not only because none of the so-called criminals around Mugabe was convicted. I say so because we are now under a worse dispensation where we now have a criminal President who is providing succour and sanatorium to the huge criminal cabal that includes members of his family, close relatives and political associates.

Comparatively, the shadow of the criminals around Mugabe has become a midget, given the now towering silhouette of the many criminals now swarming around ED’s pilfered royal ensconcement.

Under Mnangwga’s watch, and probably with his hand in the pie as well, we hear billions worth of national wealth have been looted in the past few months.
ED hived off almost all the strategic State entities into a murky sovereign wealth fund now named the Mutapa Investment Fund that is legally protected from any form of scrutiny and oversight, He may have a hand in the massive corruption case where we now hear that his ally Kuda Tagwireyi reportedly made a secretive payment of US$1, 6 billion to unknown shareholders in a huge and brazen cash heist.

Tagwireyi is reported to have paid this handsome amount to unknown shareholders for shares in Kuvimba Mining, which owns over a dozen gold, lithium, nickel and platinum mines under the Mutapa Investment Fund.

This murky, secretive deal involving national assets and running into billions of dollars has reportedly pushed up the country’s debt figure by several billions of dollars, with the proceeds from this arrant theft of State resources reported to be lining private pockets.

Dear reader, it is clear we have moved from an era of criminals around the President to an era where the President is not only a criminal himself but is providing refuge, nay a protective laager, to the criminals around him who are plundering national wealth.

In short, we have moved from a dispensation where a President was surrounded by purported criminals to a dispensation where a President is surrounding the criminals and offering them royal protection from prosecution, especially, the ex-convict Wicknell “My Son” Chivayo.

I will briefly describe the nexus between Mnangagwa and the criminals around his dispensation, itself an objective fact supported by the reality obtaining on the ground.

It is fact that Mnangagwa’s shadow has loomed large around all the major corruption scandals in the country since his grand entry onto the political dais through a coup in November 2017.

The Gold Mafia expose’’ directly linked him, his wife Auxillia and his children, to a coterie of reputed delinquents, including criminal underworld characters like Simon Rudland and Ewan Macmillan, among many others.

Indeed, ED was exposed as the kingpin of the huge kleptocratic network plundering Zimbabwe’s vast extractive mineral wealth. The criminal network spans from the very apex of the State through associates and relatives such as his niece Henrietta Rushwaya to criminal underworld characters such as Scott Sakupwanya, Macmillan, Rudland, right down to Uebert Madzanire, a fake, comic pastor and ambassador-at-large who blasphemously carries the name of an Angel.

Mpofu amd Chimombe are in goat trouble only because they talked too much and because they exposed the massive ZEC scandal.

Otherwise under ED, every Presidential scheme has been looted, with money exchanging hands as a result of deliberate overpricing and an elaborate plot to loot using these so-called Presidential schemes.

Be it the Presidential goat scheme, the Presidential wheat programme, the Presidential livestock scheme, the Presidential borehole scheme; they have all reportedly been systematically looted by a criminal elite handpicked by none other than Mnangagwa himself to act as suppliers, middlemen and contractors.

As we speak, Mnangagwa is enmeshed in a huge US$100 million election scandal in which it has emerged that his office directly participated in choosing the company that supplied election material in an election in which he was a candidate. This was in violation of the legal natural justice principle of nemo Judex in sua causa , which states that one must not preside over a case in which they have an interest.

Apart from his close acolyte Wicknell Chivayo whose leaked audios show that it is the President who is now around the current criminals, there is further evidence yet of ED’s involvement, either directly or vicariously, in the huge criminal acts of sleaze and avarice that have engulfed the country. .

It has also emerged that Martin Rushwaya, ED’s nephew who is now the chief secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet, presided over the ZEC tender process and chose the voting material supply company, and not ZEC, an independent Commissionthat was supposed to autonomously run its own affairs without influence from anyone.

ZEC was supposed to run its own affairs, including procurement of voting materials, independent of the executive and without involving Emmerson Mnangagwa and Sakupwanya, who were candidates in the same election.

It has also emerged that Mnagagwa’s daughter, Chido, was also involved in the ZEC scandal, itself a confirmation of how ED’s shadow looms large in Zecgate, directly implicating him and exposing his nexus to the criminal network now teeming around his stolen Presidency, a stolen Presidency that in turn is stealing all else around the country with neither shame nor compunction.

As stated earlier, the criminal network around ED has this time become a far much bigger retinue than under Mugabe.

My point is that unlike during the era of Mugabe, who was presumably removed in a military-led operation that self-servingly said it was targeting the criminals around him; we now instead have a President who is himself metaphorically surrounding all the big criminals and the massive criminality in the country.

Dear reader, as a country, we have simply morphed from the era of criminals around the President under Mugabe to an era of a criminal President who has become a protective laager around fellow criminals now swarming his royal seat for protection!

Last time, the dictum was the criminals around the President; now it is the President himself who is around the criminals, offering them a secure haven and immunity from prosecution.

Dear reader, kindly note that as Mike Chimombe and Moses Mpofu deservedly languish in jail, nothing has happened to the criminal kingpin Chivayo who has publicly bragged that he is the President’s son and has the whole system under his firm grip.

In fact, the net appears to have selectively closed in only on the goat thieves while conveniently neglecting the huge ZEC scandal where Chivayo and ED himself appear to have been the masterminds.

We await action on the huge ZEC scandal that sits at the very heart of the discourse around illegitimacy and the unfreeness and unfairness of elections in Zimbabwe.

Recently, a stubborn Chivayo tweeted: “Actor haafe,” arrogantly boasting that nothing will happen to him.

Chivayo is obviously banking on the sanctuary and cover that ED’s name offers him, which cover has seen his accomplices getting arrested while he roams scot free, despite being the architect of ZECgate.

It is telling that he would publicly boast and arrogantly describe himself as the “main actor” in this horror movie of the 2023 massive electoral heist and the brazen pilferage of the people’s sovereign will.

Chivayo’s safety from the long arm (or is it the short arm?) of the law shows that ED is the power around this ex-convict.

When ED’s niece Henrietta was arrested at the Robert Gabriel Muagbe International airport a few years ago while attempting to smuggle six kilogrammes of gold, she was in the company of a team of Mnangagwa’s personal bodyguards that included one Stephen Tserai and Raphios Mufandauya,

The involvement of ED’s personal bodyguards shows that the President was around criminal Henrietta and all her criminality.

Otherwise why did ED’s personal bodyguards accompany a smuggler to the airport?

Be it Delish Nguwaya, Henrietta, Chivayo, former Health Minister Obediah Moyo and other relatives and close associates whose corruption cases have died a natural death, ED’s shadow looms large around all of them.

ED and his minions have stridently denied his involvement in these scandals, stating that the President was a victim of name-dropping.

But Zimbabweans are not stupid. They know that it is the President who left his indelible, implicatory footprints around these major corruption scandals.

Hell No. Mnanngagwa’s name was not dropped by anyone. It is the President himself who has spectacularly dropped his guard of prudent stewardship to become part of the looting of the country’s vast national wealth, to which he is the supposed chief custodian. .

Lastly, dear reader, I and many others have asked this question before and I will ask it again here today: Just where are the military tanks, given what the military has said and done before?

If Mugabe was removed because there were criminals around him, why are the tanks silent when we have a worse scenario than we had in November 2017; when all indications are pointing to the fact that we now have a criminal President surrounding the criminal and thieving brigands looting the State?

It has gotten worse than the grounds for which Mugabe was removed.

Indeed, the military showed the country a template. They set a precedent that they have dismally failed to religiously abide by.

Dear reader, I am not trying to incite a coup. Hell No. I am simply giving you insight!

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