Who says Mnangagwa's not corrupt? - Part 1

In this first part, I show how Emmerson Mnangagwa, Grace Mugabe and Sydney Sekeramayi dealt in forex, smuggled Congolese diamonds and gold. 

Emmerson Mnagagwa, known as the son of God because of his support from Robert Mugabe, is involved in various business activities. He is a farmer and is into mining.

He went into the DRC for mining after Zimbabwe's involvement in the civil war there. He works with the Congo-based company called JFPI Corporation that is into gold and diamond mining.

Between 2002 and 2003, a United Nations Security Council report named him as one of the illegal mineral exploiters in the Congo.

He works with the Omani businessman Thamer Said Ahmed Al Shanfari aka Al Shanfari, aka Sheikh Thamer and were both  named in the UN report. Shanfari is the son of ex-Omani minister of oil. 

Shanfari is the president and chief executive officer of a company called Oryx Natural Resources that owns a joint diamond concession in Mbuji-Mayi with JFPI Corporation, the governments of Zimbabwe and the Congo.


A SA report described Shanfari as Mnangagwa's most important foreign business partner. The report says both Mnangagwa and Shanfari were involved in illegal cash and diamond smuggling through Harare Airport.


According to the report, bought business class tickets and arranged for the transfer of the large sums of cash from Europe for their Congolese deals.

A man known only as Ali who is the runner is quoted as saying that on three occasions, he picked up large sums of money between US$500 000 and US$750 000 from London and Brussels banks that are in the name of Oryx.

 Ali and another called only Moses in one of the reports said they were10 such money smuggling trips that could involve more than US$5 million.

He says the money belonged to a Lebanese diamond dealer, an Iraqi arms dealer and a Sudanese businessman involved in the scandal that saw the closure of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) in 1992.

When BCCI folded up, its branch in Zimbabwe were renamed the  Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe. Former Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono was the bank's boss. Gono is Robert Mugabe's banker.

Most of the couriers, the reports say, were former soldiers who obeyed orderd without qusetions. They smuggled the money through Gatwich Airport and were met at the Harare Airport by Mnangagwa's army men who facilitated ease entrance into Zimbabwe.

"The money would then be distributed in various ways," said Ali, who says he saw much of what happened with his own eyes. 

"Part of it would go to the PLO Embassy in Harare."

"The ambassador (Ali Halimeh) was a very nice man. As well as being the longest-serving diplomat in Harare - his car's number plate was CD1 - he was a foreign exchange dealer. He gave us Zimbabwean dollars in return for the US, lots of them, in big cardboard boxes," Ali says in the report.

Large chunks of this money would then go to Mnangagwa.

"Emmerson would get a cut after every trip. What would happen would be that Emmerson would come round to Thamer's house for a barbecue or a dinner, he has a huge ranch house outside Harare, and while they were eating one of Thamer's trusted people would put two or three of these cardboard boxes stuffed with money into the boot of Emmerson's car," says Ali.

The report also fingers Mugabe's young wife, Grace, who is described as "a woman who has acquired a reputation as something of an African Imelda Marcos on account of her profligate spending down the years in the shops of London, New York, Madrid and other western capitals which she has visited in recent years, usually flying Air Zimbabwe, a state airline which the Mugabes have a habit of comandeering for their own private use".

Ali and Moses said they were aware of boxes of money having been delivered by car to the First Lady at her home. 

"A third beneficiary was General Vitalis Zvinavashe, head of the Zimbabwean armed forces," the report states.

The report also accuses Sydney Sekeramayi, who after receiving cash donation  wrote to Shanfari on 7 July 2000 when he was Minister of State Security in the President's Office, thanking him for gift.

Sekeramayi had retained his parliamentary seat and his letter, that carried an official Zimbabwean government letter head and contains Sekeremayi's signature at the bottom reads: 

"Dear Mr Thamer Al-Shanfari, I am writing this letter to express my sincere appreciation for the generous moral, material and financial assistance you rendered to boost my election campaign. My re-election as the Member of Parliament for Marondera East was greatly facilitated by your support. Thank you very much. Dr S.T. Sekeremayi."