“VICE-PRESIDENT Constantino Chiwenga whose previous two divorce cases revealed that he is loaded with money, property and businesses has completed building a new luxurious mansion in Harare's upmarket Borrowdale suburb. He is expected to move into the jaw-dropping home soon, informed sources say,” reported News Hawk.
“The cost of the new house runs into millions of dollars. The source of Chiwenga's wealth remains a mystery.
“The breathtaking property was constructed in recent months by Chinese nationals who fitted it with the latest technology to bolster the security-conscious vice-president's safety.
“Dubbed "the White House", the awe-inspiring double-storey mansion has a spectacular structure and the finest finishings; transcendental decorative texture and optics all built by the Chinese.”
Of course, we KNOW the source of not only VP Chiwenga, Robert Mugabe and all the other Zanu PF ruling elite’s fabulous wealth - corruption.
The Zimbabwe Defence Force (ZDF) is one of the select few local individuals/entities who were granted a very special and very lucrative diamond mining concessions in Chiadzwa and Marange. The holder of the concession is allowed to mining without having to keep any record of the quantity or quality of diamonds mined, to whom the diamonds are sold and for how much, who the beneficiaries are and how much they received, etc., etc.
The beneficiaries of these super special diamond mining concessions are under no legal obligation to declare any of their earnings for personal or company tax purposes.
The Zimbabwe’s GNU cabinet was certainly aware of these special diamond mining concessions because David Coltart, MDC Minister of Education in the GNU, related a story where Emmerson Mnangagwa suggested that the Ministry of Education would not be asking for increased budgetary allocation if it too had one of the mining concessions.
The late Edward Chindori-Chininga tabled a parliamentary committee report in 2012 revealing how all those mining the diamonds in Marange and Chiadzwa kept no records and paid no tax.
The special diamond mining concession were a “licence to loot!” Period!
So the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, cabinet and parliament, the highest powers and authorities in the land not only knew about the wholesale looting taking place in Marange, they are the ones who issued and approved these looting licences.
Looting in Zimbabwe is legal and institutionalised.
VP Chiwenga was the ZDF commander and no doubt he and his fellow top brass in the Army would have received their share of the Marange diamond mining spoils. He retired from the Army after the November 2017 military coup to become the VP. No doubt arrangements were made to ensure he either continued to receive his share from the ZDF activities or some other concession.
The diamond mining concessions have become so popular they have now been extended to gold, platinum and lithium mining and to other areas such as fuel procurement.
The ZDF together with their Chinese partner from the Chiadzwa and Marange diamond mining have spread their wings into some of these new areas!
The looting continues! All paid to the select few in brown paper envelops, in hard currency of choice and all tax free! Not even ZACC will be allowed to ask the obvious question: where did you get the money to afford all these mansions, cars, gold watches (VP Chiwenga has 45 gold watches), etc.?
Just to be absolutely certain ZACC will never ever overstep the mark and ask stupid questions of those granted the licence to loot; the chair person of ZACC is none other than the wife of the late Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sibusiso Moyo.
As the News Hawk correctly pointed out, the “White House” is VP Chiwenga’s second mansion in Harare. His first mansion C&J (Constantino and Jocelyn) was renamed C&M (Constantino and Marry) after he divorced Jocelyn and married Marry. He has since divorce Marry and had her thrown out of the mansion.
So why is VP Chiwenga a second mansion? One might ask!
The divorce paper to his first wife Jocelyn showed just how rich Chiwenga is. The couple had the C&J mansion, farms, fat bank accounts, a fleet of posh cars, lived in unparalleled luxury and, among the many luxuries, Chiwenga had 45 gold watches.
Chiwenga is building the “White House” mansion, he has a mansion already but is building it anywhere because he is loaded and cannot think of anything else better to spend his looted wealth on. He is not alone in this!
Robert Mugabe squandered US$ 2 billion building his Blue Roof mansion because he too was loaded. The mansion is empty because his wife and children are hardly ever there.
The maintenance bill for the mansion is US$100 000 plus per year and there is nothing going on there to generate even one dollar. The rot and decay has already started!
Mugabe poured billions of dollars into building a sprawling business empire which was thriving whilst he was alive, no doubt, from the many direct and indirect subsidies. His Gushungo Dairy Farm used to be a hive of activity is now totally deserted.
Chiwenga, Mugabe and the rest of the local ruling elite are squandering their share of the looted national wealth of luxuries they do not need and, without the looted wealth, cannot afford to keep.
At a national level, it is criminal to be spending billions of dollars on mansions, posh cars, etc. whilst hospitals and schools are starved of funding. The US$2 billion squandered on Blue Roof mansion alone would have paid for Batoka Gorge Hydro Power Project, a second Kariba Dam with all the economic benefits! Instead, we have just another white elephant.
Chiwenga and his ZDF buffoons are nothing but vicious hunting dogs to be fed the head, legs, the guts and all the cheap stuff whilst the hunter, the Chinese in this case, takes all the good stuff. Worst of all the Chinese are not only keeping the lion’s share of the wholesale looting that is crippling Zimbabwe, they are doing everything in their power to stop any meaningful democratic change in Zimbabwe just to keep Zanu PF in power so the looting can continue!
"We don't need anyone's money as we can do it on our own. Sometimes it's just the mindset and belief to achieve that," Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Dr John Mangudya told Business Times last month.
ReplyDelete"Like what oil is to Nigeria, gold is to Zimbabwe. The precious mineral alone has the potential to turn around the country's fortunes.”
He was confirming what we have all known for decades, that corruption is rampant and is the one dragging the nation into this total economic meltdown. The double whammy here is we know corruption is rampant and it is destroying the nation and yet we have done and are doing nothing about it.
We have seen Chiwenga’s “White House”, seen Mugabe’s four storey Blue Roof, Mnangagwa has completed his bombproof underground bunker complex, etc. We have seen them but none of it registered in our minds. It has never occurred to us that the billions of dollars squandered building these monuments to greed is money that should be ploughed into building the nation’s economy for the good of all. To us, it is all been water off a duck’s back.
“Even though the international Community has committed itself to the provision of health care to the poor and the principle of universal education for children, we receive virtually nothing from international agencies or the so called "Development Partners." In fact, the IMF even denied us aid to deal with the Covid-19 crisis,” said Mr Eddie Cross.
Of course, Mr Cross should know, he was on the RBZ Monetary Committee with Dr Mangudya, that Zimbabwe would not need any help to revive the economy if it stamped out corruption. Why would the international community give any assistance to a nation whose leaders are loaded!
If we, the ordinary Zimbabweans who are on the coal face of the economic meltdown, cannot even be bothered to voice our concern at the building of these mansions when the country is failing to buy the corona virus vaccines, for example, then it is our own funeral!
There is no denying that the country's ruling elite are loaded. What is sad to note is most of them squander their ill-got wealth of pleasure and leisure, mansions, posh cars, VP Chiwenga is crazy about gold watches, Wicknell Chivayo is crazy about shoes, Grace Mugabe is nuts about Gucci shoes, etc. Any business ventures they start up fail the day the looted wealth stops flowing. It is little wonder the nation is sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss, all its wealth is creamed off by the ruling elite only to be wasted.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that Zimbabwe's ruling elite are nothing but the hunting dogs of the foreign partners who are the principal beneficiaries of the Zimbabwe's looted wealth. It is worrying that these foreign handlers are the one keeping Zanu PF in power and they will use some of their vast looted wealth to ensure Zanu PF or their preferred replacement rules Zimbabwe.
Those calling for democratic changes in Zimbabwe must know that they not only have to face Zanu PF ruling elite who are addicted to the good life and will not be easily pushed over but the toughest opponents of all would be the Chinese and the other foreigners, the real financial and intellectual power houses behind Zanu PF thugs.
There is no difference between Mnangagwa and Kasukuwere, they are both ruthless thugs and their track record in Zanu PF says it all. The people of Zimbabwe must start thinking through what they want and stop going for the easy shortcut! Tyson Wabantu will never get us out of this hell-hole!
ReplyDeleteZVISHAVANE-based politician Lilian Timveos, who last week defected from the opposition MDC Alliance to Zanu-PF, yesterday presented some opposition officials who also followed her to the ruling party.
ReplyDeleteTimveos, until recently the MDC Alliance deputy national treasurer, yesterday told excited Zanu-PF members at a gathering in the Midlands town that she was one of the people who used to view Zanu-PF with disdain. She said she was awed by the good reception she got at the State House from President Mnangagwa.
Ever since MDC leaders sold out during the 2008 to 2013 GNU, by failing to implement even one meaningful democratic reform; it has been clear MDC leaders have given up the fight for reforms and had settled for the scraps of power Zanu PF gives the opposition as bait.
The opposition participated in the 2018 elections knowing fully well that Zanu PF was going to rig the elections. It is sheer hypocrisy, to say the least, for Nelson Chamisa to complain of Zanu PF rigging the elections and Mnangagwa being illegitimate when he knew Zanu PF was rigging the elections.
@ Ken Mufuka
ReplyDelete“Tendai Mbofana sent me some information, which greatly upset me. I ignored it. Then he sent me the same information for the second time. I only write under some cloud of inspiration. at this point the information made me so angry, I woke up in the middle of the night to write this story.
I had been working on the untimely demise of a Philistine warlord, former vice-president brother Kembo Mohadi. Four allegations of sexual misconduct while holding high office were made against him. Some bright "chaps" at ZimLive were excited about the scoop, but I, knowing all the secret paths in the forest, intuitively grasped the fact that the allegations had nothing to do with a discovery of conscience among the Philistine rulers.
It was all a "charade" as another bright "chap", Todd Moss from the US State department, has long discovered ahead of me. Do not rejoice over the untimely demise of brother Mohadi, because nothing has changed either in the operandi (the way people do business) or in their priorities.
I can share with you a piece of information in passing, which has been missing from your narratives. As long as General Valerio Sibanda is outside government, he remains relatively clean and an alternative force to reckon with. So far he has kept his wisdom to himself, as indeed General al Sissi did in Egypt.”
The fall of one Kembo Mohadi proves two things:
1) The insatiable greed and sheer arrogance of the Zanu PF ruling elite, they are not only robbing the nation blind of our national resources but are treating our mothers, sisters and aunts as sex slaves, there for the sexual gratification. Anyone who considers the relationship here as that between conceding adults lack imagination.
2) It is no secret that Zanu PF has bought, at great national expense it must be said, the technology from the Israeli and other sources to eaves drop and record on all of us private lives. When Didymus was Minister of State Security under Mugabe, he boasted of how the regime knew what all of us were doing. It is very probable that the dirty on Mohadi was leaked by someone in the regime and thus underlining how ruthless the regime is; if it can so carelessly destroy one of its own what more an outsider!
Yes, Zimbabweans should be glad to see Mohadi go, he is only getting a taste of some of the medicine he has been dishing out to others all these years.
But what should concern every thinking Zimbabwean out there is how to end the Zanu PF dictatorship now before it destroys us all! The madness has lasted for the last 41 years, we must end it now!
FORMER First Lady Grace Mugabe and a group of her associates are coming under investigation from anti-corruption authorities following complaints that they grabbed residential stands worth US$10 million without paying from an upmarket development on State land in Borrowdale.
ReplyDeleteArosume Property Development (Pvt) Limited were appointed as developers for the land on Carrick Creagh Estate allocated to Sally Mugabe Housing Cooperative in 2005 and have now lodged complaints with the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission and the Special Anti-Corruption Unit in the President's Office.
They allege that the former First Lady Grace Mugabe and then Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development Minister Ignatius Chombo used their political clout to transfer stands from the development to companies they controlled without paying for that land.
This is why everyone in Zanu PF is determined to stay as close to the centre of power as they can. As long as one is wielding power or has the ear of those at the top table, you are safe. G40 members lost power and the ear of those at the top table and they are in serious trouble.
Grace Mugabe and the other G40 members are still protected by the party, Zanu PF, as regards some of the common denominator lootings like the loot in Marange, Mnangagwa will never accuse them of that because he knows he will only be incriminating himself too. As for the individual looting activities such as the seizure of land in this case, she will face the music. It will be loud and there is more, a lot more, to come!
Now it is clear why Grace Mugabe was so desperate to succeed her husband as Zimbabwe’s next president.
@ Grace Kwenji
ReplyDelete“Chamisa true to character has chosen to throw the toys out of the pram, his tantrums now a nauseating ritual each time that his lack of leadership is exposed, the legitimacy issue becomes an easy tool for distraction.
The late icon Morgan Tsvangirai’s death left the movement he once valiantly and fearlessly led at sixes and sevens clueless as to how to steer the once great movement forward. A vacuum painfully felt each day.
The opposition that once stood tall globally as a champion of human rights and democratic principles is getting unstuck as it fails within itself to practise what it preaches. There is no brother’s keeper.”
I totally agree with you that MDC under Nelson Chamisa is a total waste of space, the party will never get Zimbabwe out of this economic and political mess. Of course, it is foolish for Chamisa to cry wolf over the rigged elections when he is the one who agreed to participate in the elections with no reforms in place.
“MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!” Chamisa boasted before the elections. He did not even have the common sense to demand for something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, for Pete sake!
By participating in the flawed and illegal election process, MDC and all the opposition opportunists who joined them gave credibility to the process and, by extension, legitimacy to the Zanu PF regime. Of course, it is nonsense to complain of Zanu PF rigging the elections when you knew all along that was going to happen!
I totally disagree with you in your praise of Morgan Tsvangirai. History will know him as the MDC leader who failed to implement even one reform when he had the golden opportunity to do so during the 2008 to 2013 GNU.
As far back as 2004, the USA ambassador to Zimbabwe described Tsvangirai as “a flawed character who will be an albatross round the nation’s neck”. If is tragic that even now with the benefit of hindsight many Zimbabweans still fail to see MDC leaders for whom they really are – corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent.
Only someone who has completely failed to understand what the 2008 GNU was about would praise Tsvangirai much less continue to follow any of the MDC leaders! Whilst the world will help us end the Zanu PF dictatorship but first we must show the world that we are ready for democracy and good governance. Blindly following corrupt and incompetent leaders is proof we are not yet ready for good governance!
It is very sad that some many Zimbabweans, especially the MDC members, have failed to comprehend the significance of MDC's failure to implement the democratic reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Even with all the benefit of hindsight and the mountain of evidence of how MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform because they were corrupt and incompetent. The fact that there still so many people who still remain loyalty to the MDC and follow the leaders blindly like sheep goes to show we are still a nation whose thinking is locked on personality and not values and ideas.
ReplyDeleteThe Greek Philosopher, Socrates said great minds discuss ideas, small minds discuss events and minions discuss personality. So 2 500 years later with all the benefit of human civilization and our own first hand experience we have learned nothing. We still call the man who sold-out the nation by failing to implement even one reform with the dire consequences we are suffering everyday an Icon, the father of democracy!
With such naive, gullible and downright foolish voters, Zimbabwe will never be a healthy and functioning democracy. Even if we were given a clean start, Zanu PF dictatorship dismantle, given a democratic constitution, etc.; if we got it in the morning by noon the dictatorship will have emerged!
THE country recorded two more Covid-19 related deaths and 32 new cases yesterday, bringing the total number of cases to 36 321.
ReplyDeleteThe Covid-19 death toll in Zimbabwe now stands at 1 489.
All the new cases that were recorded yesterday were local transmissions while the deaths were reported in Mashonaland West province.
The vaccination of frontline workers continues in all the country's provinces and 243 people were inoculated
243 people vaccinated in the whole country! How many people are there doing the vaccinating? Let’s hope we do not have vaccination teams sitting and doing nothing just as we have done with testing teams!