Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG), a Zimbabwe-based NGO advocating for violence-free and conflict-free extraction of natural resources now wants the government to halt the scourge.
“We are gravely concerned on syndicates who abuse their proximity to power and defraud Zimbabweans and the central government of funds that should be expanding the country’s revenue base and improving the socio-economic lives of Zimbabweans,” says Simiso Mlevu, a project and communication for development chief at CNRG.
On May 9, South Africa’s Hawks Serious Organized Crime Investigation team arrested Tashinga Nyasha Masinire at OR Tambo International Airport on charges of illegally possessing 23 pieces of gold valued at $700,000.
The gold was discovered in Masinire’s luggage and he failed to produce a permit that allows him to transport the gold.
According to Mlevu, the arrest of Masinire by South African authorities raises questions about the porosity of Zimbabwe’s ports.
“The smooth departure of Masinire with his loot exposes the complicity of Zimbabwe’s immigration and security authorities in the smuggling of the country’s minerals,” she told Ubuntu Times in an email interview.
The NGO further calls the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the role of the Zimbabwe Miners Federation and politically connected cartels in the smuggling of minerals.
It further wants the judiciary to consider smuggling of minerals as a high-level crime and impose deterrent sentences on members of criminal networks involved in smuggling of minerals
Zimbabwe continues to lose billions of dollars annually to organized criminal syndicates which have spread their wings from diamonds, chrome, gold, semi-precious gemstones, coal to copper, among other minerals.
With the majority of Zimbabwean working population majorly found in the informal sector, many of those living in mineral-rich areas risk their lives digging underground in search of gold to better their lives.
Research by International Crisis Group estimated that over $1.5billion of gold is smuggled out of Zimbabwe each year, denying the cash-strapped economy of crucial foreign-exchange revenues.
The Central bank-owned Fidelity Printers and Refiners (FPR) is the sole legal buyer of extracted gold in Zimbabwe and is also the country’s notes and coins minter.
This, analysts say, could be a major factor for smuggling of gold because of the poor prices offered by FPR to the sellers.
Late last year, as one of the efforts to curb this, announced that it would close down all unmonitored airstrips, install a new radar control system to monitor small aircrafts flying in the country with a belief that they might be used to smuggle minerals out of the country.
“The root of the disease was political. The treatment could only be political. Of course, we encourage aid that aids us in doing away with aid. But in general, welfare and aid policies have only ended up disorganizing us, subjugating us and robbing us of a sense of responsibility for our own economic, political and cultural affairs. We chose to risk new paths to achieve greater well-being.” These were the remarkable words from Burkina Faso’s iconic leader Thomas Sankara.
The issue of aid in Africa, which Sankara was vehemently against, is topical and today used in determining how alliances are built and strengthened between the continent and its former colonizers. From the western world, Africa should get military, humanitarian, emergency and charitable aid to promote growth and security among other issues. In these times of the Coronavirus pandemic, giving alms to Africa has gone a gear up through a new phenomenon called “medical aid.” Global players have also joined the race to aid and rescue Africa. After the 2018 Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), China pledged aid worth US$15 billion to Africa between 2019 and 2021.
Aid is a new form of colonialism. it is friendly but vicious. It is the new face the west and other global players are using to subjugate Africa because of its friendliness. Nearly four years after Ghana’s independence and realizing colonial defeat, then United States of America (USA) president John Fitzgerald Kennedy announced a new plan to address Africa’s ‘needs’.
“AID represents a very essential commitment. As important as any work that is being done by anyone for this country,” said President Kennedy in 1961 at the launch of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) initiative.
Food donations by non-governmental organizations create a dependency syndrome that will see citizens expecting more handouts even when they have the land to grow crops for self-sustenance. Credit: Gibson Nyikadzino / Ubuntu Times
According to a 2019 report by the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a group of wealthy donor nations, the value of international development aid in the world reached a new peak of US$152.8 billion, a slight increase over 2018. Africa has received more and this is not mere generosity.
Giving A Crumb After Taking A Loaf
The amount of aid which the west or east call important for African countries is not commensurate with what the global powers are exploiting and shipping out. Resource exploitation and plunder, slave labor and under-pricing of Africa’s resources have become key characteristics of what multi-national corporations are looting, and later return the crumbs in the form of aid.
Africa’s resources were plundered by the Europeans many years before they agreed to formally colonize Africa at the Berlin Conference in 1885. Slave trade stole the continent’s human resources. According to historians, over 12.5 million Africans were shipped out of the continent due to the slave trade. While it is a complex exercise to calculate the monetary value of what was stolen in Africa, but a decade before the American civil war, in New Orleans, a healthy African male slave was auctioned for $1,200. A girl aged nine or ten was auctioned for $1,400 considering her ability to bear more children for resale.
The value of the resources even after independence continues to bring slave wages in Africa. In Ethiopia, one of Africa’s biggest exporters of coffee, farmers are made to sell the coffee at US$4 per kilogram while large coffee companies sell the same at US$200 per kilogram on the international market. The same goes for cocoa in Ivory Coast. As a result, multi-national corporations continue making profits that run into millions while ‘independent’ Africa remains poor. Africa is strategic to global powers because of their reliance on its natural resources and economic opportunities.
The imposition of colonialism on Africa altered the course of the continent’s history. Its impact is felt entirely. The settler regimes had a poor and worse record for poverty reduction, considering the mineral resources of South Africa and then Southern Rhodesia (modern Zimbabwe).
With a continued pouring of aid in Africa in the name of “transforming lives” failing to meet the continent’s demands, economist and author of Dead Aid says the issue of aid in Africa is “one of the greatest myths of our time.”
“The state of postwar development policy in Africa today is one of the greatest myths of our time. That billions of dollars in aid sent from wealthy countries to developing African nations has helped to reduce poverty and increase growth is false. In fact, recipients of this aid are not better off as a result of it, but worse – much worse,” wrote Dambisa Moyo.
Road To Hell Paved With Good Intentions
Humanitarian or emergency aid through drugs and food, charitable aid through scholarships and non-governmental organization (NGO) work, and other interventions have not been sufficient to transform African societies. In the longer term, these are not going to help Africa develop. Public goods such as healthcare, education, and infrastructure are in many instances being financed in most instances through donor funds. What donors are providing are goods that African governments should provide their citizens.
In 2010, in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakariya, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame said the role of aid is to support the socio-economic transformation of people and help people achieve things they want and ultimately wean off aid.
Ambassador Olkkonen says the wealth Zimbabwe has is enough to transform the country’s socio-economic condition and in the long term wean it off dependence on aid. Credit: Gibson Nyikadzino / Ubuntu Times
European Union (EU) head of delegation to Zimbabwe Ambassador Timo Olkkonen acknowledges that Zimbabwe has wealth of resources and that in “the longer term we should move away from dependence on aid.” “Zimbabwe is a wealthy country in terms of natural resources and touristic and agricultural potential. In the longer term, we should move away from dependence on aid. Concurrently with providing development cooperation we are building our trade relations with Zimbabwe based on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) we have. We are in the midst of negotiating an expansion of that agreement to cover other areas than trade in goods,” Ambassador Olkkonen says.
According to a 2019 CSO Sustainability Index for Sub-Saharan Africa prepared by USAID, the US government pledged to give NGO’s financial aid to “empower and transform livelihoods of citizens in all sectors.” Despite reports of mismanagement of donor finances, Ambassador Olkkonnen said his bloc has mechanisms in place “to avoid any un-procedurally benefitting from our funding” adding that “the thousands of beneficiaries of EU support all over Zimbabwe will disagree” that EU aid is “just plain wasteful”.
Decolonize The Mind And Return To Freedom
Africa’s modern leaders have abandoned the self-sustenance philosophies of leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, and Thomas Sankara. Zimbabwe’s media scholar and academic Dr. Lyton Ncube said aid will never develop the continent, but will only avail short-term benefits.
“That issue is a complex one and we need to understand the political economy of aid from the Washington Consensus and taking it from either the eastern or western blocs. When we look at the role of aid in transforming lives of Africans, perhaps the benefit is short-term sustainability and not for the long term. The main problem is those who fund have their own interests, goals, and ambitions. I would refer you to some of the revolutionaries when you look at the philosophies of Thomas Sankara, Patrice Lumumba, and Kwame Nkrumah they managed to embark on what I would call the return to freedom,” said Dr. Ncube.
According to Dr. Ncube, the issue of aid resembles the problem of coloniality in Africa and urged governments to take the lead from Zimbabwe when it embarked on the land redistribution exercise in 2000 that benefitted over 300,000 households. Before 2000, only 4,500 former white commercial Zimbabwean farmers owned an estimated seventy percent of the country’s prime land.
Dr. Ncube adds: “To have long-term development we need to own the means of production and be masters of our destiny by value-adding our products. Zimbabwe’s land reform program is a starting point to self-sufficiency. Are you telling me those donors have no people who need help from their countries? Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o says the problem that we suffer from is the problem of the mind. We need to cleanse our minds from the colonial system.”
A Zimbabwe magistrates’ court in the city of Bulawayo on Monday, May 31 threw out a bail application by Mr. Jeffrey Moyo, a correspondent for Ubuntu Times, citing that he is a “flight risk.”
Allegations against Mr. Moyo by the state are that he contravened the country’s Immigration Act by “fraudulently or misrepresenting in facilitating the entry of foreigners in the country” without due procedure.
Prosecutor Mr. Thompson Hove told the court Mr. Moyo assisted two foreign journalists to illegally enter the country and facilitated their press cards after the duo had been denied such by the Information Ministry.
In her ruling, magistrate Rachel Mukanga said Mr. Moyo is facing serious charges that could see him serve a ten-year prison sentence if convicted.
Mr. Moyo’s lawyer said he is “urgently” appealing the ruling at the High Court though the process might take “a week or even longer” to be heard.
“We certainly felt that Jeff was a very good candidate for bail. We hoped that justice would be done, but we have feelings that this is not unusual especially in the magistrates’ court where good candidates are denied bail in these politicized cases,” said Mr. Douglas Coltart.
Mr. Coltart said he is still waiting for the magistrates’ record though he has made a request.
He added: “As soon as we get necessary copies for us to file the appeal we will do so. By law, it (getting magistrates’ record) is meant to be on an urgent basis because all bail matters are urgent. But sometimes the record can take a week or even longer than that and once we file our appeal it will have to be set down by the high court.”
Ubuntu Times journalist who was arrested Wednesday on allegations of contravening the country’s immigration laws and allegedly facilitating the accreditation of two foreign journalists without due procedure is being kept under inhumane conditions, his lawyer has said.
Mr. Jeffrey Moyo, 37, is alleged to have misrepresented in the facilitation of accreditation for New York Times journalists Christina Goldbaum and João Silva who arrived in the country on May 5 but were later deported. Mr. Moyo appeared in a Bulawayo court for bail application on May 28 but was remanded in custody for ruling set for Monday, May 31.
His lawyer Mr. Douglas Coltart said the State in its submissions raised numerous grounds in their opposition to Moyo’s freedom saying the “issue is a national security threat.”
Mr. Coltart said the grounds of the State’s opposition to his client’s freedom are not based in law but “it appears to demonstrate the politicization of this case and interference of the Information Ministry in the functioning of an independent commission.”
He said Mr. Moyo is “mentally strong.”
“Jeff is doing good but the conditions of his detention are absolutely horrific and inhumane. When he was detained at Bulawayo Central police station, they took away some of his warm clothes and was sleeping on the floor, and yet we are in winter but nevertheless, he is mentally strong,” said Coltart.
The Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) president Mr. Michael Chideme said his union is “following court proceedings and will offer a statement after speaking to Mr. Moyo.” The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zimbabwe Chapter director Mr. Thabani Moyo said they are “trying to understand the matter.”
Spokesperson of the Young Journalists Association (YOJA) Mr. Leopold Munhende said as young media practitioners operating in Zimbabwe they “are really worried about Jeff Moyo at the present moment.”
“We are viewing this as an attack on the media. It has been happening over the years, it is not new of course. We now hear they took some of his clothes in this winter. The lawyers are being clear he did nothing. They are saying it is not his responsibility to accredit journalists but that of the ZMC.
Mr. Munhende said as young journalists they “fear that one day this could happen to us if the state wants.”
Several government officials, including ministers, charged with the country’s Coronavirus response have been found wanting in their spending of COVID-19 funds, according to a recently leaked preliminary report by the Audit Bench of the Supreme Court of Cameroon. The mismanagement and misappropriation are connected to an FCFA 180 billion (USD 338 million) Coronavirus Response Special National Solidarity Fund instituted in 2020.
In the summary report, government auditors disclosed that besides lapses in procurement procedures, there was widespread overbilling in the purchase of personal protective equipment (PPEs). This cost the state to lose close to FCFA 1.3 billion (circa USD 2.4 million). Also, some 100,000 face masks and 1,000 PPEs, donated by Chinese business mogul Jack Ma, could not be traced in the store’s accounting records of the ministry of public health.
Auditors also fault officials of the ministry of public health for circa FCFA 14.5 billion lost in overbilling through a contract for the supply of rapid tests kits awarded to Mediline Medical Cameroon SA. The firm, which is said to have been registered in 2017 but has had no experience in medical supplies and an inactive empty bank account, was granted a quasi-monopoly – supplying 89.97 percent of the country’s COVID-19 test kits.
Mediline Medical Cameroon SA bagged home FCFA 24.5 billion for 1.4 million test kits, giving a unit price of FCFA 17,500 per kit. But auditors reveal that, by the time the contract was being awarded to Mediline Medical Cameroon SA, the same STANDARD Q COVID-19 AG TEST could have been purchased directly from pharmaceutical firm SD BIOSENSOR at FCFA 7,084 per kit as proposed by the producer. Despite the whopping FCFA 10,415 disparity, the ministry of public health, in the fourth quarter of 2020, continued to buy the COVID-19 test kits through Mediline at FCFA 17,500 per kit whereas it could get the same through The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria at FCFA 2,932 per kit.
Though the unit price of the SD BIOSENSOR-produced STANDARD Q COVID-19 AG TEST proposed by Mediline Medical Cameroon SA was far much higher than applicable market prices, the ministry of trade is said to have biasedly okayed the price.
The auditors also noted in their report that some 610,000 COVID-19 test kits could not be accounted for. But the invoice for their supply was sent by Moda Holdings Hong Kong to Mediline Medical Cameroon SA on behalf of the ministry of public health.
In addition, Mediline Medical Cameroon SA and Yao Pharm Sarl were both awarded two contracts worth FCFA 880 million in August 2020 to furnish 16 medicalized ambulances within 90 days. But as at December 31, 2020, none had been delivered.
Again, the Audit Bench of the Supreme Court indicates that FCFA 657 million was allocated to the Institute for Medical Research and Studies of Medicinal Plants (IMPM) to locally produce 5 million tablets of hydroxychloroquine and 5 million tablets of azithromycin. Instead, IMPM imported from India, 5 million tablets of hydroxychloroquine, 5 million tablets of azithromycin and 300kg of raw material for the production of azithromycin. The institute proceeded to repackage the drugs with the inscriptions: “Produced by Zaneka, Packaged by IMPM,” though the packages with which the drugs reached Cameroon met good packaging standards and quality. According to Cameroonian regulations, the competence to import drugs lies with the National Supply Centre for Essential Drugs and Consumables (CENAME).
IMPM had also used FCFA 70 million of its budget to rehabilitate its production facilities although the department of pharmacy, drugs and laboratory in the ministry of public health had advised that the institute was unable to carry out local production.
The auditors also observed opacity in the management of funds destined to take care of COVID-19 patients as well as irregularities and disparities in the allowances given to healthcare personnel. In addition to products and services which were paid for but not rendered, auditors noted wasteful expenditure without any appropriate budgets. Other cases which smack of embezzlement were also highlighted in the report.
Ndi Nancy Saiboh, Executive Director of Actions for Development and Empowerment (ADE); a civil society organization that has been pushing for government transparency and accountability, welcomed the move. According to Saiboh, it had become expedient for the government to block financial leakages and ensure that funds do not end up in personal pockets.
“Our experience with the tracking of COVID-19 funds has revealed a deeply rooted systemic profiteering culture, especially in an environment that lacks accountability and civic engagement, ” Saiboh said.
Leader of the opposition Social Democratic Front party in the Littoral Region, Hon. Jean Michel Nintcheu has called for the immediate resignation of Ministers Manaouda Malachie, Madeleine Tchuente and Paul Atanga Nji, who were the key officials fronting government’s response efforts.
The audit which was ordered by the president follows recommendations of the IMF. Countries receiving IMF financing during the crisis are expected to publish pandemic-related procurement contracts and the beneficial ownership of companies awarded these contracts, as well as COVID-19 spending reports and audit results. By October 2020, IMF had granted a total of USD 382 million to Cameroon under the Rapid Credit Facility.
Sarah Saadoun, senior business and human rights researcher at Human Rights Watch said: “The IMF should take seriously the opportunity a new multi-year loan program presents to press for deep-seated governance reforms that will improve Cameroon’s transparency and accountability during this pandemic and beyond.”
On April 18, Zimbabwe celebrated its 41st independence anniversary from British colonial rule amid a presidential promise that the country’s mining sector will contribute US$12 billion dollars in revenue by 2023.
The country’s over sixty mineral resources ranging from diamonds, platinum and gold remain under-explored. According to the country’s minister of Mines and Mining Development Mr. Winston Chitando, “Zimbabwe does not know the estimated value of its mineral wealth.”
Despite the huge wealth in mineral deposits, the lives of many Zimbabweans have not improved. In his independence speech, Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa reiterated his government’s plan to have the mining sector contribute hugely to the economy and improve the lives of citizens. By 2030, Zimbabwe seeks to achieve an upper-middle-income economic status.
“The mining industry is projected to rebound by eleven percent this year. Guided by the strategy to achieve a US$12 billion industry by 2023, programs that include increased exploration, expansion of existing mining projects, resuscitation of closed mines, opening of new mines, mineral beneficiation and value addition are being prioritized,” said President Mnangagwa in his independence speech.
Zimbabwe’s President Mnangagwa addresses the nation in his Independence Day speech revealing that the country’s mining sector will be a US$12 billion dollar industry by 2023 despite Zimbabwe losing over one billion dollars through gold smuggling and illegal trade of the mineral. Credit: Gibson Nyikadzino / Ubuntu Times
Zimbabwe’s goldfields and other mineral fields are today a contested terrain where even the elite and state institutions including the country’s Defence Forces are scrambling for a slice of the cake. In 2008, Mr. Farai Maguwu, the director of Center for Natural Resource Governance was arrested for bringing to attention the abuses committed by Zimbabwe’s security forces in the Marange diamond fields.
The gold sector has not been spared. According to a 2020 report by the International Crisis Group (ICG) gold buyers linked to President Mnangagwa buy the precious mineral on a premium, deterring the gold panners from selling the gold to Fidelity Printers and Refiners, the sole authorized gold buyer.
Resources Plunder By An Intemperate, Predatory Elite
After his dismissal then as Vice President in November 2017, Mnangagwa was accused of amassing wealth by grabbing mines belonging to small-scale miners. “Mnangagwa also grabbed many mines which belong to small-scale miners. He was abusing his authority as the Vice President to grab whatever he wants. We say Mnangagwa must be arrested because he is corrupt, he must face the music,” said then party official Mr. Dickson Mafios at a rally.
In 2018 former Higher Education Minister in Zimbabwe Prof. Jonathan Moyo also revealed that President Mnangagwa’s activities and those of his close circle are despicable that even the United Nations (UN) had to publish a report about their activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) second civil war.
“The person who led the plunder of resources in the DRC leading to the United Nations (UN) investigating and coming with a report that is still there is Emmerson Mnangagwa along with the military cabal of General Chiwenga and SB Moyo. The person who brought the Chinese to plunder Chiadzwa Diamond Fields up to a point to which we had at the very least from 2007 to 2014 some US$12 to US$15 billion in diamond revenue that remain unaccounted for that went into the pockets of individuals is Mnangagwa,” Prof. Moyo said.
The report titled Plundering of DR Congo Natural Resources: Final Report of the Panel of Experts (S/2002/1146) was published in October 2002.
President Mnangagwa’s name has been implicated in a scandal of six kilograms of gold that were recovered by the police destined for Dubai, allegedly involving his wife Auxillia, son Collins and close relative Ms. Henrietta Rushwaya. Credit: Gibson Nyikadzino / Ubuntu Times
Today President Mnangagwa and his family’s name continue to ring in illegal gold deals. Illegal gold mining or artisanal small-scale mining in Zimbabwe has been a launchpad for many illicit financial flows and gold smuggling out of the country. Home Affairs minister Mr. Kazembe Kazembe in February this year admitted that smuggling and illegal gold deals are costing the country between US$1.2 billion to US$1.5 billion dollars annually.
The First Lady distanced herself from Ms. Rushwaya’s arrest. “I have no dealings nor involvement with Ms. Rushwaya of any illegal kind,” she said. The gold sector in Zimbabwe has become a vital cog in foreign currency earning with many entrants using President Mnangagwa’s name to make inroads.
A US$12 Billion Election Campaign Promise For 2023?
Mr. Maguwu doubts the sincerity of the Mnangagwa administration in reaching the US$12 billion mining sector contribution to the economy by 2023. He further notes “Zimbabwe has far surpassed that mark.” Late Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe in 2015 claimed the country had not received much from its diamond industry and lost about US$15 billion in the sector.
“We have not received much from the diamond industry at all. Not much by the way of earnings. I don’t think we have exceeded US$2 billion or so and yet we think that well over US$15 billion dollars have been earned in that area,” President Mugabe claimed then.
Zimbabwe is scheduled for general elections in 2023 and according to Mr. Maguwu, the government initiative in the mining sector is a campaign tool similar to the 2013 elections.
In 2010, Zimbabwe had an Employee and Community Share Ownership Scheme (ECSOS) in which foreign-owned companies were expected to cede some of their investments towards employee and community empowerment. After the 2013 elections, the scheme has been dumped.
“To me, it sounds like a political statement targeting the 2023 election, similar to the 2010 community share ownership scheme that was going to empower communities, and it led to the 2013 elections. After that election the whole thing died a natural death, now they are talking about a US$12 billion dollar economy by 2023, which is another election year. There is no feasibility study as to what is wrong with our mining sector. You cannot fix what you do not know. So there is no research carried out to say what is wrong and how do we correct it.”
“This government is silent on mining corruption. They are not talking about it and that is where the money is. It is not about making big statements and making promises to the nation,” Mr. Maguwu said.
Mines Minister Mr. Chitando dismissed critics for insinuating the US$12 billion dollar mining industry sector target by 2023 is a political campaign strategy. In his admission, he said Zimbabwe does not know the cumulative value of its mineral wealth. Credit: Gibson Nyikadzino / Ubuntu Times
Minister Chitando dismissed Mr. Maguwu’s assertion. He says the expected US$12 billion dollar contribution by the mining sector will be revenue streamed into the national fiscas.
“The US$12 billion dollars is the revenue that will be coming to the fiscas from the mining sector. There are projects happening now in the platinum sector, we have three new projects taking place. We have expansion projects taking place and all projects are taking place in reality. The fact that we took a five-year window is because that is the target we are working on,” explained Minister Chitando.
Uphold Rule Of Law To Plug Leakages, Illegality
Mr. Wellington Takavarasha, the chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF), an organization owned by President Mnangagwa’s close relative Ms. Rushwaya, highlighted that artisanal small-scale miners contribution to the US$12 billion contribution is dwindling as some miners are being arrested.
Between 2017 and 2020, artisanal small-scale miners contributed a total of sixty tonnes of gold to the sanctioned government buyer, Fidelity Printers and Refiners. Because of arrests of the artisanal small-scale miners, gold output has declined from 60 percent to 47 percent. In 2019, small-scale miners contributed 17 tonnes as opposed to 9.8 tonnes in 2020.
“This year’s first quarter, our output has declined but we have the potential to contribute to the US$12 billion target. Our strategies include having our ventures formalized, mechanized, and have government resuscitate the mining industry loan fund,” said Mr. Takavarasha.
ZMF estimates that a tonne of gold is traded illicitly outside the formal market, which is fuelled by more than 1.3 million unregistered artisanal small-scale miners against its membership of 40,000.
Zimbabwe’s Gold Trade Act prohibits people without licenses to trade in the precious material. “Illegal mining is a livelihood activity that needs to be formalized. As it is, government is not benefiting but the middlemen and police are benefiting,” added Mr. Takavarasha.
Illegal gold dealings and smuggling is no new phenomenon in Zimbabwe. Successive ministers have raised the issue but their principals have turned a blind eye to their calls. Economist Mr. Nyasha Muchichwa says for government to stop the leakages, it needs to “uphold the rule of law and offer a competitive price to stop arbitrage.”
Government sanctioned buyer Fidelity Printers and Refiners is currently buying gold at US$45 per gram while on the illegal market it is US$54 per gram.
“The fact that we can quantify the money we are losing means we know that it is happening and when it has happened. The law should take its course and to those caught on the wrong side to be used as an example on what not to do.”
“When paying for those mining or selling gold, let us pay competitive rates so there is no arbitrage. As long as we have different prices this is when you find people making other means to get more money from the mineral they are holding. We need to address the price, laws that govern the selling, and the issue of our porous borders,” said Mr. Muchichwa.
Chegutu, Zimbabwe — Nick Mangwana, Government spokesman in Zimbabwe has moved in to evict resettled black farmers in order to take over the farm in Chegutu, a Zimbabwean farming town in the country’s Mashonaland West Province about 100 kilometers west of the capital Harare.
In fact, on March 21, the Southern African nation’s information tsar stormed the farm with a gun which one of his victims at the farm said was deliberately exposed in a bid to scare him.
Now, Mangwana has enlisted the services of his brother Paul’s law firm to quicken the eviction of 70 families resettled on the farm he grabbed from the black resettled farmers.
Paul Mangwana is the governing Zimbabwe Africa National Union Patriotic-Front’s secretary for legal affairs.
Over two decades ago, Zimbabwe embarked upon chaotic land seizures of white-owned farms, leaving more than 4000 commercial white farmers displaced from their land.
The indigenous farmers at the farm grabbed by Mangwana said they occupied the land during the time the government spokesman was in the diaspora during the reign of former President Robert Mugabe.
But Mangwana, who says he was allocated 102 hectares of the sprawling 2,000-hectare farm last November, showed up with an offer letter in January this year ordering the villagers, who settled on the farm six years ago, to “harvest their crops and leave.”
As such, his lawyers from Mangwana & Partners Legal Practitioners have served the resettled farmers with a five-day-notice to tear down their homes and vacate Thorndike Farm seized by Mangwana.
“Our client is intent on fully utilizing the farm in accordance with his offer letter, but cannot attend to the same on account of your unlawful occupation and utilization of the farm without his consent and or authority,” an eviction letter from Mangwana’s attorneys read.
“We are, therefore, instructed to demand as we hereby do that you vacate our client’s land within five days of receipt of this demand.”
“You are further required to take down structures you have erected and remove any and all your belongings thereon,” the lawyers added.
But the villagers on the farm grabbed by Mangwana have dared to challenge him, saying they occupied the farm when Mangwana was still based in the United Kingdom and applied for formalized settlement between 2014 and 2016.
However, the villagers said their applications have not been granted yet nor have they been rejected.
The 2000-hectare farm was once owned by late resettled farmer Gilford Rukawo who had signed up for a voluntary farm downsizing scheme which saw him retain about 800 hectares, leaving the remainder with the other villagers who have faced the boot from Mangwana.
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania — The former head of Tanzania’s Ports Authority, Deusdedit Kakoko, who was suspended on Sunday by the new President Samia Suluhu Hassan over alleged embezzlement of public funds, in a move widely seen as an impetus to the country’s ongoing war against corruption, has been arrested.
The Director-General of Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) John Mbungo confirmed that Kakoko was arrested and currently in police custody for interrogation over alleged claims.
Speaking in the capital city Dodoma shortly after receiving the government’s annual audit report for 2019/2020, Hassan said she was startled by massive embezzlement of public funds that had been conducted by officials at the Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA), urging the country’s anti-corruption tsar—the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) to urgently investigate and where appropriate institute criminal charges against those behind the scam.
“I now order the suspension of the director-general of the port authority to pave way for the investigation,” Hassan said.
According to her at least Tanzania shillings 3.6 billion($1.56 million) had been embezzled by unscrupulous officials at the sprawling port nestled in the Indian ocean, as highlighted in the report submitted by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) Charles Kichele.
Strong Measures
The president said various reports have been spotting embezzlement and outright theft of public money at the TPA but no strong measures had been taken to curb the loss of public funds.
“From these reports I have seen massive fraud that has been conducted at TPA, we need to take actions on this for the country to benefit from its own resources,” she said
The president’s move is part of continued government efforts to seal off loopholes for theft of public monies that are channeled to non-existent development projects.
Hassan, who was sworn in on March 19 after John Magufuli suddenly died, is Tanzania’s first female head of state and is expected to complete Magufuli’s five-year term which started last November.
Special Audit
The president has also instructed the Controller and Auditor General and the state’s anti-corruption agency to conduct a special audit of development expenditures in the third quarter (January to March 2021) of the current financial year.
“We want to see an audit of all funds released for the implementation of development projects from January to March, this year,” the president said.
After reading the executive summary of the report, the president spotted a number of issues that required immediate action to improve efficiency and better use of public money.
She has also instructed the CAG to be more transparent when preparing audit reports so that the government can act accordingly.
Dirty Bills
TPA is among public institutions which prominently feature in the CAG report with “dirty bills”.
The institution has for a long time been embroiled in corruption allegations and misuse of public funds.
In December last year, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa formed a probe team to investigate alleged corruption at the port. Two officials including Nuru Mhando, the port’s finance director, and Witness Mahela, its financial expenditure manager, were suspended to pave way for investigations over accusation of embezzlement of public funds.
As part of her efforts to control leakages of government revenue the president has instructed the ministry of finance to harmonize six systems that are being used for revenue collection by making them more efficient to simplify collections, spending, and monitoring process of all development projects.
On March 9, 2015, Sheffra said unidentified men outside the barbershop in the vicinity of the couple’s home in Harare, the Zimbabwean capital, seized her then 35-year-old husband accusing him of livestock theft before bundling him into one of their unmarked vehicles and sped off.
Since then, Itai’s whereabouts have remained a mystery.
“My message today is we will not forget Itai and we pray that we get answers and we hope the government of Zimbabwe will help us to find him or to find the abductors,” said Sheffra.
A journalist by profession and founder of a pro-democracy movement called Occupy Africa Unity Square that campaigned for the resignation of former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, Itai had become a thorn in the flesh of the country’s ruling party, the Zimbabwe Africa National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF).
Days before his abduction, Itai had urged thousands of people at a rally organized by the late Movement for Democratic Change party leader Morgan Tsvangirai, to topple Mugabe.
Robbed of her husband, with her two children — a 13-year-old boy and an eight-year-old girl, she (Sheffra), said ‘the children know what happened, so we just pray for him to come back to us one day.’
“Life without him is hard. It’s hard to live for six years without knowing where (Itai) he is or what happened to him, especially when l look at our two young kids; it’s hard.”
“My boy and girl can’t wait to see their dad. They talk about him most of the time, saying that when dad comes, we will run to meet and embrace him,” Sheffra told Ubuntu Times.
Itai’s brother, Paddy Dzamara, said ‘my message is directed to those who took Itai and also to Mr. ED Mnangagwa (the President) to provide us with closure of his whereabouts.’
“Itai’s abduction and disappearance has been hard for the family and we all miss him. His children Nokutenda and Nenyasha always ask about his whereabouts and when he will come back to them,” Paddy told Ubuntu Times.
Gladys Hlatshwayo, the opposition MDC Alliance secretary for external affairs, said ‘we remember the courageous Itai Dzamara who was abducted on this day six years ago.’
“He is still unaccounted for to this day. Sadly, his brother Patson Dzamara passed away before he could get answers,” said Hlatshwayo.
Dar es Salaam — Widespread economic doldrums and the rising wave of moral decay have forced an unprecedented number of female journalists into the trap of sexual bribery where they exchange sex for job offers.
According to the research, titled Sexual Harassment Among Women Journalists in Media Houses conducted by Tanzania Media Women Association(TAMWA)—a local charity working to protect women’s rights, the root causes include poor pay, professional incompetency which force women journalists to offer sexual bribery to secure their jobs, ethical misconduct, immoral behavior, lack of professionalism and abuse of office.
Moral Trade-off
The report, seen by Ubuntu Times found women in the media experienced sextortion a form of non-monetary bribes by senior editors and managers which exposed them to moral compromise to exchange sex for employment.
Widespread Phenomenon
Sextortion—a form of corruption that employs non-physical forms of coercion to extort sexual favors from a victim, is a serious problem in Tanzania.
People entrusted with power in organizations such as editors or educators often abuse authority to suit their sexual fantasies.
The survey which was conducted in Dar es Salaam suggests, 48% of the respondents faced sexual discrimination at work, while 52% refused to comment on the matter which is a crime according to Tanzania laws.
Culture Of Shame
A culture of shame widely embraced by society has made it increasingly hard for victims to come forward, according to women’s rights groups.
Speaking to reporters in Dar es Salaam two weeks ago TAMWA’s Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator, John Ambrose said the survey involved freelancers, journalists with short-term contracts, and trainee reporters.
The research, which involved senior editors, media managers, journalism colleges, and non-governmental organizations, revealed some incompetent female journalists often lure their bosses for sex to get favors, and in other cases, editors force trainee reporters into sexual affairs.
“Most female journalists are incompetent but since they still want to retain their jobs, so they’ve to seduce their bosses to protect their jobs,” the survey finds.
Inappropriate Relations
The findings further say the problem is largely fuelled by trainee reporters since most of them are often jostling to establish inappropriate relations with senior editors in the hope to get employed upon completion of their studies.
“Most female reporters find themselves caught up in sexual trap whenever they want to enter in a radio or TV studio,” the survey says.
Rose Reuben, TAMWA’s Executive Director, however, said sexual bribery does not only affect female reporters but also male journalists who find themselves entangled in a dangerous moral trade-off.
“Many female journalists experience this problem but they don’t think it’s cause for concern, I ask them to raise their voice against this social malady,” she said.
Researchers have recommended the enactment of a clear-cut gender policy that explicitly spells out sexual corruption as a violation of human rights.
According to her the policy on sexual bribery in newsrooms and frequent reminders should help in resolving the problem.
As part of efforts to fight sexual harassment at work, Tanzania’s Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB), recently launched a special campaign to raise awareness about the dangers of sexual corruption.
Under the banner of “kataa rushwa ya ngono,” Swahili meaning, “reject sexual corruption,” trained officials were scheduled to educate people on how to avoid the social malady.
A Criminal Offense
While sexual bribery is criminalized in Tanzania, campaigners say the law is too weak to deter perpetrators who often pay fines and walk scot-free.
Section 25 of Tanzania’s anti-corruption law of 2007 states: “Anybody being in the position of power or authority, who in the exercise of his authority, demands or imposes sexual favours, or any other favours on any person as a condition for giving employment, a promotion, a right, a privilege, or any other preferential treatment, commits an offence and shall be liable, on conviction, to a fine of not exceeding five million shillings or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or both.”
In Tanzania, where nearly nine in every 10 women have experienced sexual harassment, activists say awareness campaigns against it can potentially raise the momentum to curb it.
Nnamdi Okorie said in late October, after the widespread protests against police brutality in Nigeria resulted in days of tumult in Oyigbo, a crowded suburb of the oil hub southern city of Port Harcourt, soldiers moved from house to house and searched for members of the separatist pro-Biafra group, IPOB.
Local authorities had blamed members of the state-banned Indigenous People of Biafra for the rampage that saw police stations and army patrol vehicles torched and six soldiers and four police officers killed in the town.
When soldiers arrived the Okories home, they wanted to take his 22-year-old son away, he said. But the young man, Obinna, refused to board the army’s Hilux pickup and tried to escape. He was shot dead and his body taken away by the soldiers, sending residents who witnessed the killing fleeing for safety.
“They should please give me my son’s body either dead or alive; I am committing all things to God who is the ultimate judge,” Okorie told Ubuntu Times, weeping.
For the days that followed, the River State government imposed a round-the-clock curfew and troops barricaded the area, leaving residents without access to water and food as security forces combed the area and randomly attacked locals, residents said.
“It was very tense. People could not come in or go out of the place for days. It was more like a war zone,” said Ike Azubuike, an oil worker who lives in the town.
Enforcing the curfew brought more casualties. Remigus Nkwocha said her husband who had gone on October 25 to a nearby market to purchase food items they could use through the curfew period, was hit by a stray bullet fired by soldiers implementing the lockdown. He died afterwards in the hospital.
Weeping in the midst of her children and sympathizers, Mrs. Nkwocha told Ubuntu Times her biggest worry was how to raise their four children. “I’m finished. I can’t bear it alone,” she said.
With access restored to the area after weeks of a punishing curfew which the government said was aimed at checking the activities of IPOB, a group that seeks an independent state of Biafra, the extent of the bloody raid has become clearer and residents have narrated their ordeal at the hands of security agents.
All the residents selected at random and interviewed separately said soldiers searched for members of IPOB and shot indiscriminately and killed people in an apparent reprisal for the killing of soldiers. At least 20 people would have died in the raid, they said.
The army said its troops “acted professionally” and denied attacking residents. The spokesperson for 6 Division of the Nigerian Army in Port Harcourt, Major Charles Ekeocha, said the army only entered houses that were possible hideouts for hoodlums, according to the Guardian newspaper.
Facing criticisms, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state denied ordering soldiers to kill residents in the community, but insisted he will “not fold my arms and watch criminals destroy my state.”
Protests and Rampage
The Oyigbo incident has become the latest bloody incident involving troops in the aftermath of the campaign against police brutality in Nigeria. The #EndSARS protests lasted weeks seeking the dissolution of the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad. The protests found appeal with the country’s large population of unemployed youths and university students forced to stay at home due to lecturers’ strike.
Burnt trucks residents say were military pickups razed by hoodlums. Credit: Ubuntu Times
As the protests became a rallying point for many, authorities claimed groups with sectional interests tried to exploit the campaigns for underhand motives. The demonstrations culminated on October 20 when soldiers opened fire on protesters at the Lekki Tollgate in the commercial capital, Lagos, killing at least 12, according to Amnesty International.
The turmoil that followed the shooting left the country in shock. Thugs set fire to public and private properties in Lagos and other cities and attacked security personnel. In Oyigbo, the government said IPOB, which has tried to revive the defunct 1960s-era Biafra Republic, went on a rampage and razed police offices and killed officers.
The Police Area Command Oyigbo set on fire by hoodlums before attacks by soldiers. Credit: Ubuntu Times
An intervention by the army was thwarted as a patrol team sent from a nearby military base was overrun. Six soldiers and four police officers died.
“Since its proscription, the group has carried out intermittent processions in parts of Rivers State, especially in Oyigbo and some notorious suburbs in Port Harcourt Local Government Areas,” Gov Wike said in a broadcast on October 30 referring to IPOB.
“This evil, wicked and audacious action resulted in the unnecessary loss of scores of lives, including soldiers and police officers, and the destruction of both public and private properties, including police stations, court buildings and business premises.”
In interviews, residents said hoodlums also raided a courthouse and vandalized shops. Looting subsided after police and soldiers were dispatched to the area and a 24-hour curfew imposed. The attack soon degenerated to a confrontation between the thugs and soldiers, leading to the killing of soldiers, according to witnesses.
Killing the Innocent
That was the trigger of the siege. Residents said the army deployed more troops, who without systematically going after the attackers who by this time had fled the area, descended on unarmed residents.
Locals said at least 200 soldiers were deployed to cordon the bubbling district. They arrived in armored vehicles and went house to house and picked young men and loaded them into their trucks and took them to their base in Obehie in neighboring Abia State. Those who resisted were shot, according to witnesses.
Most residents refused to give their names or allow to be quoted over safety concerns. One elderly man told Ubuntu Times how a group of young men chased by soldiers around the Kom-Kom area ran into the Imo River swamp having reached the end of the road. He said soldiers fired into the water, killing the fleeing men.
At Afam Road roundabout, Ubuntu Times saw a burnt Volvo wagon car which residents said was used as an ambulance to convey a corpse to the mortuary when it ran into soldiers. They said after the driver explained his mission to the soldiers, he was chased off and the vehicle set ablaze.
Residents said soldiers killed several young people and their bodies taken away. Most of those detained and taken to the military based were yet to be released when an Ubuntu Times reporter visited the area.
Monica Chikwem, a resident of the area, narrated how her pastor’s son, a mechanical engineering graduate who recently got a job, was killed by a stray bullet. She said his body was left at home for two days since there was no way to move his body to the mortuary due to the soldiers’ blockade of all entry and exit points. The body was eventually smuggled to the mortuary through a bush path.
Chikwem said for 10 days, they lived in constant fear as bullets fired by soldiers fell occasionally on their roof. With total curfew in place, they had nowhere to buy food and other consumables and survived on eating premature crops nearby.
Another resident, John Nworgu, narrated how bullets pierced through his son’s leg who was trying to go through a back road to buy food for the family. Nworgu’s son survived.
During a recent visit to Oyigbo after the siege was lifted, one of the most talked about deaths was that of Queen Nwazuo, a 26-year-old polytechnic student, who was struck in the neck while at a hair salon. Nwazuo died before she could get medical assistance.
A poster showing a fatal injury on Queen Nwazuo, one of the persons struck by a stray bullet fired by soldiers. Credit: @OgbonnayaMbaka on Twitter
An Ubuntu Times reporter said almost all the homes he entered and people approached for interviews had tales of woes about the siege and accused the army of highhandedness.
On November 3, the Guardian, one of the country’s most respected and popular newspapers, reported how its reporter visited a house in Oyigbo and saw four soldiers knocking hysterically on a gate to a building. The soldiers screamed: “If you don’t come out and open the gate, we will burn the building and kill you and nothing will happen,” according to the paper.
When one of the residents finally opened the gate, the troops ordered her to call out everyone in the compound and as residents gathered, one soldier yelled: “The army is very angry with this community because your people killed our colleagues, we are here to search for certain persons and you should obey everything we say, anyone that argues or disobeys, we will kill the person.” However, after a search of the compound, the paper said officers left, saying: “Our target person is not here”.
Ethnic Concerns
Residents interviewed by Ubuntu Times said they suspected the military operation had an ethnic undertone, claiming that soldiers had asked some men they arrested if they were Igbo. The claim, not independently verified, appeared to draw strength from comments by the governor and historical sentiments.
A place of worship, synagogue, razed and destroyed by soldiers in Oyigbo. Credit: Ubuntu Times
In his broadcast, Wike said “Rivers State belongs to the indigenous people of Rivers State” and warned that “as a stranger element with strange political ideology therefore, IPOB has no legal or moral right to invade Rivers State or any part therefore at its behest; to disturb public peace, and subject lives and property to violence or threat of destruction under any guise.” He added: “We appeal to leaders of the various ethnic groups residents in the State to ensure that their members respect the sensibilities of our people and refrain from provocations and acts of hooliganism that could breach peace and security in the State.”
The group, IPOB, is predominantly Igbo, and the Rivers government said the group has used Oyigbo, which has a large Igbo population, as an outpost. The first attempt to create Biafra from Nigeria in the 1960s resulted in a civil war that killed over a million people. Since then, the Nigerian state has brutally crushed groups that align with that cause, often killing many.
Over years too, non-Igbo groups in the region have rejected the agitation for Biafra, and some Igbo cluster tribal groups have even denied having the same tribal roots with the Igbo, despite apparent linguistic ties. Some Igbo activists say the town raided by the soldiers, originally called Obigbo (meaning the heart of Igbo) was renamed Oyigbo in the early 1980s to spite the group.
In the chaos that unfolded in Oyigbo, some of the buildings reportedly razed by troops were synagogues assumed to be the worship place of IPOB members. The IPOB group has identified as Jewish and its members worship in synagogues, noticeably varied from the predominant practice of Christianity in the area. One synagogue was razed by troops near the timber market and another at Okpulor was demolished on November 9. But those interviewed said the synagogues were open for all persons especially the Sabbatarians, beyond IPOB.
Authorities Deny
Amidst criticisms following the attack, Gov Wike denied ordering soldiers to kill Igbo in the town. Speaking on television on November 2, the governor said the accusation was “politically-motivated.”
“It’s not true that I ordered the military to kill Igbo in Oyigbo. So, what about the Igbo living elsewhere in the state? Are they also being killed?” He added: “I will not fold my arms and watch criminals destroy my state, if those few criminals are Igbos then they should know that I will not allow them.”
Wike, however, said security agencies during their search of some residents in Oyigbo, saw shrines with IPOB flags and a picture of the group’s leader, Nnamdi Kanu.
Usually busy streets of Oyigbo remain scanty weeks after a deadly assault by soldiers killed many in the town. Credit: Ubuntu Times
The army also denied targeting a particular group. It also denied killing residents, even when the evidence shows the contrary. The spokesperson for Six Division of the Nigerian Army in Port Harcourt, Major Charles Ekeocha, said the army only entered houses that were possible hideouts of “hoodlums”.
“We lost six soldiers in that area, their weapons were carted away, it was planned and executed,” he was quoted by Guardian as saying. “The exercise going on there now is searching and identifying houses used by the so-called IPOB members. We are searching those houses to see whether we can get all those rifles they took away from our soldiers, that is what we are doing, we are professional about it. I don’t know about firing of weapons.”
Usually busy streets of Oyigbo remain scanty weeks after a deadly assault by soldiers killed many in the town. Credit: Ubuntu Times
On November 18, the king of Oyigbo, Mike Nwaji, urged the governor and the military authorities to caution soldiers against the indiscriminate arrests of residents in the area, according to the Lagos-based newspaper, Punch.
“Even if the person is a member of IPOB, I overheard the governor said that the activities of IPOB in Rivers State has been proscribed. I didn’t hear the governor say search them from house to house, but the governor said their activities, meetings, gatherings.
“So, any person going round and telling soldiers to come and see IPOB (should stop); the main people who committed the offense had all run away.”
Dar es Salaam — A Tanzanian court on Tuesday, November 17 sentenced a well-known media entrepreneur to one year suspended sentence after he was found guilty of obstructing police investigations.
Maxence Melo, the co-founder of JamiiForums—a popular whistle-blower website in Tanzania, and the winner of New York Based 2019 CPJ International Press Freedom Award, was charged for obstructing justice by refusing to reveal the identities of anonymous users disclosing suspected Tanzanian corrupt public officials.
Controversial Cybercrime Law
The defendant was charged under a controversial 2015 Cybercrimes Act, which human rights campaigners say was enacted to promote the government’s desire to silence critical voices in one of east Africa’s popular online chat rooms.
President John Magufuli, who has won the second and final term in office, promising to intensify the war against corruption and wasteful spending has come under strong criticism for undermining democracy stifling basic rights to opinion and expression.
One Year Suspended Sentence
Presenting the verdict, Huruma Shaidi a Resident Magistrate at Kisutu court, said the accused is convicted on similar charges of the cases which had been filed earlier. He acquitted him on conditions that the defendant would refrain from committing a similar offense within a year. The Magistrate also set free Melo’s co-accused Mike Mushi after the prosecutors failed to prove the charges against him.
The protracted case against Jamii forums’ founders is part of a series of police allegations that have been dragging since 2016.
In a similar case, Melo was sentenced to pay a fine of Tanzanian shillings 3 million (US$1,300) or to serve a jail sentence for one year. He paid the fine.
No Action Plan
Reacting to the verdict, Mello told reporters that he’s dissatisfied but respects the court’s decision.
“It is too early to know the next move, my lawyers will decide on our action plan for appeal,” he told reporters.
During the case, the prosecutors accused him of ‘intentionally and unlawfully’ concealing the identities of anonymous people who posted false information on the website.
The duo were charged for obstructing investigation contrary to Section 22(2) of the Cybercrimes law. The specific charges was refusing to cooperate with investigators who needed information about an anonymous JF Expert Member calling him/herself Fuhrer, who had alleged on the platform that Oil Com company was embroiled in tax evasion scam by illegally leasing and draining oil at the Dar es Salaam port. The company denied the allegations.
Vague Charges
In dramatic turn of events, the police were interested in knowing users’ information including IP and email addresses. With time the state changed the case and instituted new charges accusing the defendants of corrupting and distorting data in blatant violation of the law.
The accused also faced cybercrimes charges in two other related cases, including one accusing them of operating an unregistered website.
However, critics have criticized the government for failing in its mandate to investigate corruption allegations; instead, targeting whistle-blowers who assisted in exposing corruption.
Under the Cybercrimes law, anybody who publishes “false, deceptive, misleading or inaccurate” information on a website commits an offense and upon conviction can be jailed for three years or made to pay a fine of at least Tanzanian shilling 5 million or both.
A Trained Engineer
Melo, who is a trained civil engineer co-founded JamiiForums—a website that exposes corruption and help push for political accountability almost two decades ago.
Although the website has won global acclaim, it had put him at loggerheads with Tanzania authorities.
In 2008, Melo was arrested on accusation of terrorism. Although the charges were dropped it was not the end. Seven years later the east African country passed the controversial Cybercrime Act of 2015, which, critics say, authorities have been using to censor and limit criticism.
In a bid to comply with harsh online regulations, JamiiForums was shut down for 21 days. The whistle-blower website has since hired a legion of lawyers to review its editorial policy, strategies, and modus operandi so that it complies with government regulations.
Nairobi, Kenya November 19 — Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) meeting at the 8th Pan African Conference on Illicit Financial Flows and Taxation in Nairobi have expressed deep concern over African governments limited interest in the High-Level Panel on International Financial Accountability, Transparency, and Integrity for Achieving the 2030 Agenda (FACTI Panel) consultations.
They are calling on African governments to actively participate by providing written and oral input into the FACTI Panel High-Level Africa regional consultations, saying to date, only the governments of the Republic of Sudan, Egypt, Nigeria, and South Africa have confirmed participation at the ministerial level.
The FACTI Panel regional consultations seek to bring together high-level representatives from member states, along with leaders from the private sector, civil society, and academia.
The inputs from these stakeholders will feed into the FACTI Panel’s determination of technically feasible and politically viable recommendations to be made in its final report in February 2021
On 18th November, the High-Level FACTI Panel and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa hosted the High-level Africa regional consultation to discuss possible means to address the shortcomings identified in the interim report published by the FACTI Panel on 24 September 2020.
It is only by active participation can African leaders ensure the FACTI Panel’s final report addresses the needs of African countries as losers in a rigged international finance architecture.
The FACTI Panel represents a critical institutional space to call for the implementation of measures targeted at curbing illicit financial flows and widespread tax evasion and tax avoidance that most harm countries in the Global South.
By participating in the FACTI Panel High-Level Africa Regional Consultation, African leaders can use the opportunity to critique the shortfalls of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) processes and demand the establishment of a truly inclusive and democratic global tax governance structure.
Reforming the global structure of the international financial architecture and strengthening the fiscal and policy space for socio-economic transformation were key recommendations of the PAC conference.
They also call on African governments to demand that the FACTI Panel explicitly recognizes the immediate need for a universal, intergovernmental tax body at the United Nations, where developing countries can defend and safeguard their national interests through collective action at the United Nations.
“As Africans, we are saddened with how African Ministers of Finance are taking the FACTI Panel consultations casually. This is the moment to correct an international tax system that has all along been rigged against us. We cannot afford to lose this moment!” Alvin Mosioma, Executive Director, Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA) told Ubuntu Times in an interview.
In the face of the fundamental lesson that COVID-19 has taught governments, the centrality of public resources to Africa’s development is critical.
According to Munir Akram, the 76th President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, today, member states face three simultaneous global challenges. These are COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences, the realization of the 2030 Agenda and SDGs and the existential threat of climate catastrophe.
“Adequate financing is key to addressing each one of these challenges. Such financing will have to be mobilized at both the national and international levels. The ability of developing countries to mob dome finance is obviously constrained and this capacity has further diminished due to the impact of Covid-19,” Munir highlighted.
To allow illicit flows to continue at this time, he adds, would be nothing short of criminal. IFFs deny vulnerable people access to basic services and infrastructure and condemn them to a life of inequality and poverty.
To ensure African governments build back better and sustainably post COVID-19, the CSOs called on African governments to ensure the creation of a truly inclusive architecture of international tax cooperation to end IFFs.
IFFs deny governments billions of dollars that would otherwise be invested in public services particularly health, education, and social protection.
African civil societies hosted the 8th Pan African Conference (PAC) on Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) and Taxation from 9-13 November 2020 whose theme was ‘Africa We Want Post COVID-19: Optimizing Domestic Resource Mobilization from the Extractive Sector for Africa’s Transformation.’
Trust Africa organized the 8th PAC in collaboration with 18 co-conveners, including Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), African Union (AU), United Nations Economic Commission on Africa (UNECA), Global Alliance for Tax Justice (GATJ), African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), OXFAM, Action Aid among others.
Legislators in Lagos faced public outrage this past week after backing calls to regulate social media following the role it played in mobilizing and coordinating protests against police brutality.
Some legislators accused purported bad actors of hijacking the protests and spreading fake news to fuel unrest in Africa’s most populous city.
Actor turned legislator Desmond Elliot was an easy target and seemed to bear the brunt of criticism on social media.
He blamed the crisis that engulfed the nation’s commercial capital on the activities of social media influencers.
“Social media though good has its negative impact… Please celebrities, social media influencers, stop the hatred already,” Elliot said in a speech before the assembly on Tuesday.
When given the chance by local media two days later to clarify his utterances, an emotional Elliot said: “I can see why people thought it meant regulating the social media space. That was not in any way what I meant.”
“I could never have called for the social media space to be regulated,” said the legislator.
Elliot’s high profile status may have distracted from more forceful comments coming from other state and legislative actors against the protestors.
“The problems came from the social media,” another Lagos lawmaker, Adewale Temitope, said. “The need to regulate social media has become more than necessary. Our influencers must be brought to book.”
“There’s a way this social media can be controlled. You can’t just post anything in the United Arab Emirates, for instance. It’s being controlled by the government,” fellow legislator, Wahab Jimoh, insisted further.
It would surprise few observers that Nigeria’s Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, was also in full support of the regulation of social media.
Appearing before a committee in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, he did not mince words saying Nigeria ought to toe the line of China as far as regulating social media was concerned.
This has been a longstanding crusade for the minister.
“When we went to China, we could not get google, Facebook, and Instagram,” Mr. Mohammed said. “You could not even use your email in China because they made sure it is censored and well regulated.”
The minister is convinced regulation is needed to combat the threat of fake news.
“We are sitting on a time bomb on this issue of fake news. Unfortunately, we have no national policy on social media and we need one.”
There have been past reports that the Nigerian government has plans for a “Protection from Internet Falsehood & Manipulation” Bill, also known as the “Social Media” Bill.
Mohammed denied knowledge of such a Bill when he spoke to German broadcaster DW back in January 2020.
Activists like Sanyaolu Juwon, one of the leaders of the RevolutionNow campaign believe such a Bill to regulate social media exists and has vowed to resist it.
Juwon described the plan to regulate social media as “dead on arrival” when he spoke to Ubuntu Times.
“They have been planning this over the years and they have always introduced this Bill year in year out but every time, Nigerian people are mobilized against this draconian Bill.”
Underpinning the concerns over freedom of speech online was the hostility towards the #EndSARS protestors.
Various levels of Nigeria’s governance architecture remain reluctant to acknowledge the killing of unarmed protesters by security forces, most notably at the Lekki Plaza in Lagos.
At least 10 protesters were killed at the Lekki plaza on October 20, according to Amnesty International. That day has been christened Black Tuesday.
Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari set the tone for this posturing during a national address when he did not acknowledge the widely-condemned use of force by the state.
Lagos Speaker Mudashiru Obasa was less subtle in his contempt for the protesters when called for a moment of silence in the House Assembly for “patriotic Lagosians” who lost their lives, “and not miscreants that were killed by Police.”
Lagos Speaker Mudashiru Obasa offered no sympathy for the unarmed protestors killed during protests against police Brutality. Credit: Lagos State House of Assembly
Some like lawmaker Mustainu Tobun refuse to believe any protestors were killed despite compelling evidence.
“Till today there’s no record of death. Till today we did not see any pictures,” he retorted during assembly proceedings.
One member of the House, Owolabi Ibrahim, did acknowledge the killings when he took the floor.
“We saw when the Police Force actively tried to reduce the number of our youth. I say that because they were shooting sporadically. We saw the videos. All of us saw it.”
The utterances from Lagos legislators are why the protest against police brutality morphed seamlessly into a stand against “impunity characterized by bad governance,” according to Juwon.
The activist was critical of Lagos Governor Jide Sanwo-Olu who he blamed for the violence he and other peaceful protesters faced at Lekki, among others.
“We were hunted down like mere animals,” he recalled, insisting that the governor must resign.
The violent crackdown notwithstanding, Juwon does not think the movement was crushed.
“The tragic events of Black Tuesday, the rising body counts and direct role of the police and military, has proven beyond reasonable doubt that the struggle against police brutality and extrajudicial killings is far from over and Nigerians no doubt will be returning to the barricades sooner than expected.”
Harare — Former Chief Executive Officer of the Zimbabwe Football Association, Henrietta Rushwaya was on Monday nabbed by cops as she attempted to smuggle six kilograms of gold to Dubai.
Based on a police internal memorandum gleaned by Ubuntu Times, Rushwaya who is the Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) president was arrested Monday at Robert Mugabe International Airport for contravening section 182 of the Customs and Excise Act.
The arrest of Rushwaya comes at a time Zimbabwe reels from corruption at the behest of the ruling elite.
This is not the first time 53-year old Rushwaya is courting controversy in the Southern African country.
In 2016, she (Rushwaya) was embroiled in a match-fixing scandal dubbed Limpopogate, which linked her to a match-fixing syndicate that had been fixing games for the past 6 years prior to 2016, a year later plotting again to fix the Zimbabwe 2017 Nations Cup qualifiers game against Swaziland.
Amongst a slew of other corruption scandals, in yet another match-fixing scandal as ZIFA boss, Rushwaya in 2009 stood accused of having organized a trip by the Zimbabwe national team to Malaysia in December during which matches were said to have been manipulated.
Now, with the leopard apparently not shedding its spots, Rushwaya has hit again, this time attempting to smuggle gold while ironically, she heads the Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF).
ZMF is the brainchild of Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Mines whose formation was marked to represent and contribute to the development and growth of small-scale miners.
According to police, upon her arrest, Rushwaya claimed she obtained the gold from someone only identified as Ali living at number 32 Lanark Road, Alexandra Park, Harare, whom she also claimed was a licensed gold buyer.
But a day after her arrest, Rushwaya appeared in court where she was remanded in custody to the 28th of this month, with the magistrate Ngoni Nduna saying he wanted to consider the conditions agreed by the State and the accused’s defense team.
Meanwhile, the State led by Charles Muchemwa complied that Rushwaya be given $90,000 bail (Zimbabwean dollars).
Dar es Salaam, September 24 — A top Tanzanian lawyer and the former president of the Tanganyika Law Society (TLS)—a local bar association has been disbarred from practicing law in the East African country barely a day after she was kicked out by her law firm, in what critics term as politically motivated scheme to silence her.
“I have been permanently removed from the Roll of Advocates,” she announced on Twitter
The decision to ban her from practicing law was reached by the Advocates Commitee which sat at the country’s High Court Wednesday and found her to have breached the codes of ethics.
The 51-year-old lawyer, who was earlier this week sacked by IMMMA Advocates—a law firm she had helped to create, said her practicing number 848 had been plucked from the ledger of advocates.
“I will not be appealing the decision,” she said.
Corporate Reputation
The law firm, where Karume worked for more than a decade as a senior partner, sacked her on the grounds that she was tarnishing its corporate image and jeopardizing friendly business relations with clients.
The firm claimed it’s unhappy with Karume’s “political activism” on social media which, allegedly violates the legal code of ethics.
Sadock Magai, a managing partner at IMMMA Advocates told reporters that Karume’s political activism has injured the firm’s corporate reputation adding that she had grossly breached her partnership agreement with the firm known for its premier legal services across Africa.
Karume denied the allegations saying defending the rule of law and democracy has nothing to do with breach of ethics.
“If you defend the rule of law, democracy in a dictatorship you’re dubbed a “political activist” and terminated in breach of a deed of partnership by IMMMA a law firm that had no qualms flaunting a partner sitting as a minister in the ruling CCM government,” she said adding “Ethics are a rare commodity.”
Parting Ways
In a letter written to Karume, signed by Magai the law firm said it no longer wished to associate itself with her, adding that she will be duly compensated.
The outspoken lawyers had also been ordered to return the firm’s possessions.
“Two weeks ago, they (the firm) sent me a letter asking me to stop political activism or they will fire me. I told them I am a lawyer and it is my job to speak for the community,” said Karume defiantly.
Fearless Human Rights Defender
In a statement issued today, Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition (THRDC)—a leading rights advocacy group said it’s “extremely shocked and deeply saddened” by the decision to ban Karume.
“She’s an ardent supporter of the rule of law and staunch defender of constitutionalism, democracy, and human rights in Tanzania.”
Advocate Karume, a granddaughter of the founding Zanzibar president, Abeid Amani Karume, is described by her supporters as an astute lawyer, with a razor-sharp legal mind and a bold temperament.
“Like a person of any other calling Fatma is always guided by her conscience and stick to the cardinal rules for lawyers,” reads THRDC statement in part.
Impeccable Legal Credentials
Karume has over the years, tirelessly worked to resolve many corporate, human rights, and public interest legal disputes.
Last year, Karume was indefinitely suspended by the High Court as an advocate on alleged ethical misconduct. However, campaigners still recognize her as a fearless human rights advocate.
Karume, whose office was in August 2017 fire-bombed by unknown assailants is the second female President of the Tanganyika Law Society.
She has more than twenty years of experience in civil and commercial litigation and specializes in civil litigation, arbitration, constitutional and administrative law.
Gweru, September 22 — Former Provincial Minister for Midlands Province in Zimbabwe was this Tuesday sentenced to four years in jail following accusations of criminal abuse of office, this after he parceled out State land to desperate home seekers in Gokwe, one of the towns in the province.
A day prior to the sentence, Mr. Machaya and his accomplice, former Midlands physical planner Chisayinyerwa Chibururu were found guilty of abuse of office involving the sale of state land in Gokwe.
Sentencing the former Midlands Minister alongside his accomplice, Magistrate Charity Maphosa handed the two four-year jail term each, however suspending 18 months for each on condition that the pair does not commit a similar offense in two years.
The two would therefore serve 30 months in jail.
Machaya faced charges of parceling out 17,799 residential and commercial stands to land developers, with the developers, in turn, handing the former Midlands Minister 1,791 stands of which the accused sold 1,185.
But last year when his trial commenced in Gweru, the Midlands Provincial capital, Machaya and his accomplice denied the charges.
Mr. Machaya also faces charges of unlawfully parceling out 192 residential pieces of land to the Apostolic Christian Church of Zimbabwe (ACCZ).
Machaya and Chibururu’s defense lawyer Alec Muchadehama has however filed for his clients’ bail pending appeal against the sentences handed down by the magistrate.
Nairobi — It’s a busy Monday evening at the Zimmerman estate in the outskirts of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, and Mary Waithera is busy arranging her goods, hoping to make a few sales before the sun sets, signaling the end of the day.
Waithera has just been kicked out by a shop owner just across the street from whose verandah she had set up a table to sell old magazines, teddy bears, necklaces bangles, and other beauty products. Luckily, she has found a small makeshift stall by the roadside to rent and hopes to make ends meet.
“But the main challenge right now is making sales. Customers fear that they might contract the virus by touching these goods and therefore keep off them. The result is that we make no money and yet life goes on, and landlords need rent. What the government has been promising that it will give to those affected by the harsh times like me; we haven’t gotten even a penny. And neither do I know someone who has received it, nor been told that the money is given out somewhere and that I can go collect it,” the 34-year-old mother of two explains.
Ever since it reported the first COVID-19 case on March 12, Kenya has received billions of Shillings in donations and loans from international banks, philanthropists and donors, that was meant to help the country fight the virus. But in a new wake, Kenyans seem to be getting a raw deal.
In May alone, Kenya received a number of loans that were said to be used to help poor Kenyans cope with the hard economic times during the pandemic. These loans came from three main international lenders; the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and also the African Development Bank.
On May 6, the IMF executive board in Washington, DC approved about US$739 million that it said was to be drawn under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF). The loan would help to meet Kenya’s urgent balance of payments need stemming from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The World Bank Board of Directors then, on May 20, approved a $1bilion loan for the East African country while sitting in Washington, DC as well. The loan, the Bank said, would “help close the fiscal financing gap, while supporting reforms that help advance the government’s inclusive growth agenda, including in affordable housing and support to farmers’ incomes.”
The institution then said in a statement on May 21 that its Board of Directors had approved a US$43 Million (Sh4.59 billion) International Development Assistance loan that was to assist the country in responding to the desert locust outbreak threat and to also strengthen its system for preparedness.
The next day on May 22, the African Development Bank (AfDB), through its Board of Directors approved a €188 million loan which it said was meant to support the Government of Kenya’s efforts to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and mitigate the related economic, health and social impacts.
“The loan will extend additional resources to Kenya as the country takes steps to contain the spread of the pandemic and deal with its unprecedented impact. It follows a request by the Government of Kenya, as part of its COVID-19 Emergency Response intervention, to help contain the scourge,” the bank said in a statement.
“We are very pleased to join other development partners in supporting the Government of Kenya’s efforts in mitigating the financial impact of the pandemic, especially in terms of the country’s expenditure in the health, social and economic sectors. The next step will focus on helping build resilience for post-COVID-19,” the Bank’s Acting Director-General for East Africa, Nnenna Nwabufo, noted.
But in all these, there is little to show trickling down to assist Kenyans who are suffering the hard economic times brought about by the effects of COVID-19. And as Waithera says, landlords are still comfortably demanding for their rent, even after people lost jobs.
“Where I stay, I think my landlord is the strictest because I have witnessed him throwing people out when they fail to pay rent. Right now I am struggling and praying to God so hard that rent is found before such happens to me and my family,” she says.
Waithera’s husband also has a shop, selling electronics at the Ngara estate, just a few meters from the city center. And, according to Waithera, his business is no better.
“In fact for him, it has been a hit to the point that we don’t talk in the house. There is no happiness. He is always silent, thinking about where the money to keep our family going will come from,” Waithera continues.
Apart from bank loans, the country has also been receiving money and personal protective equipment (PPE) from donor organizations and philanthropists, both local and international.
One of such kind is the July 1 U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) $50 million support to Kenya’s response and recovery efforts that the country had made through its embassy in Nairobi. The grant, it said, was meant to meet the immediate and longer-term challenges that COVID-19 is posing.
“The American people have always been generous to those in need around the world, and today Kenya is facing the compound challenges of COVID-19, flooding, and locusts. We are focusing on ensuring resources get to the counties and communities because Kenya’s communities are Kenya’s greatest asset in overcoming these challenges,” stated U.S. Ambassador Kyle L. McCarter.
Waithera arranges her goods for sale as she sets up her new stall. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times
But in all these, there has not been a notable effect on the ordinary Kenyan people. The money has been squandered and/or stashed in bank accounts either by officials in government or the rich elite in the country.
A good part of the billions was also supposed to assist hospitals in getting equipment for health officers to be able to effectively and safely attend to patients at their facilities. But this has not been the case.
At the Mathare North Health Centre in Mathare slums, there isn’t enough equipment, including protective equipment and other patient handling equipment that the health workers need in order to be safe.
“Here, only God will be able to help us. You never know who you are handling and even though we check the patient’s temperature at the entrance, you know well enough that there are people who might have the virus but are asymptomatic. So, if possible, we would demand from the government that they also think about us as much as they would want to accumulate some of the money for themselves and their rich friends in government,” says a health worker who chose to remain anonymous for fear of losing her job.
When the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Kamau Macharia tested positive for COVID-19 on July 24, the PS handed over his duties on July 30 as he proceeded to self-isolation. He then raised concerns about where all the billions went to that the government was not able to conduct an effective contact tracing to establish who he came in contact with and might have put at risk.
“For all the billions that have been spent on this campaign, it’s hard to imagine that at the point of contact where the disease actually happens, there is no system to make sure that we have access to proper care and the proper contact tracing is actually done to keep track of those who are not well or maybe infecting others,” Macharia said in a WhatsApp group of top government officials.
In a document to the National Assembly in April, Health Cabinet Secretary, Mutahi Kagwe had pointed out that the Ministry had spent 42m shillings to lease ambulances, 4m shillings on tea and snacks, and 70m shillings on communication. This was a break-down of the 1.3bn Kenyan shillings ($12.2m), mostly donated by the World Bank in April, to be used in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
The Minister was then summoned by the National Assembly and the Senate to appear before the Parliamentary Health Committee in early May after concerns by Kenyans on the expenditure.
Doctors and nurses have always gone on strike, citing unpaid salaries and unfavorable working conditions amid the COVID-19 pandemic. On August 4, doctors and nurses at the Homa Bay County Hospital in western Kenya were the latest to do the same.
The Cabinet Secretary at the Finance Ministry in July acknowledged that about half of the money that the country has so far received was being held in the bank accounts of rich individuals.
“This will go on for a month or two, and then the banks will start lending to the private sector,” Yatani had said in late July.
Nairobi, August 1 —With COVID-19 proving to be the most adverse peacetime shock to the global economy, tax advocates have raised concern over a possible rise in the scope of Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) in Africa.
Fearing that existing fragile health systems might be swiftly overwhelmed if the pandemic spreads beyond a small number of cases, governments across Africa are stepping up their preparedness to curb its spread.
A recent tax justice advocacy training done via online conferencing sought to end aid dependency in Africa, helped redefine roles to be played by various sectors in an effort to eliminate the structural causes of poverty and underdevelopment in Africa.
The training by International Tax Justice Academy (ITJA) and Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), attracted participants from 40 African countries drawn from the media, academia, civil society, and trade unions.
“Since we started such training in 2014, we have so far imparted knowledge on over 1,000 participants on issues which include the need for domestic resource mobilization to finance Africa’s development,” Alvin Musioma, Executive Director at Tax Justice Network Africa, a Pan-African advocacy and research network of 31 members in 16 African countries told the conference in his opening remarks.
It is estimated that illicit financial flows in Africa stand between $50 and $80 billion annually; with 44 percent of the continent’s financial wealth thought to be held offshore, which corresponds to tax revenue losses of some $20 billion. The ultimate objective is not only to reduce but ultimately eliminate illicit outflows.
Africa, endowed with significant natural resource wealth with good husbandry has the potential to finance its development but existing illegal cross border movements of money and capital that threaten the continent’s sustainable development have been growing every year.
“The threat that illicit financial flows pose on the continent’s integrity and stability of its financial system in normal times has existed over decades, and now there is much to worry of in the face of the pandemic,” adds Mosioma.
Carried out by experts in their respective fields, the trainers shed light on an array of topics including Double Tax Treaties and the role they play in facilitating international corporate tax avoidance, global financial secrecy and how tax systems are rigged against Africa as well as techniques used by multinational companies to reduce or avoid taxes among others.
This year marks the 7th Edition of ITJA training with the theme: Tax Justice Advocacy: Increasing Participation of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Journalists through Capacity Building. This, according to Mosioma proved that with technology, regular capacity building activities can be held amid a global pandemic as COVID-19.
Africa is home to the world’s largest arable landmass, second largest and longest rivers (the Nile and the Congo), and its second-largest tropical forest.
A study carried out by the African Development Bank Group estimates that the total value added of the continent’s fisheries and aquaculture sector alone stands at US$ 24 billion. Besides, about 30 percent of all global mineral reserves are found in Africa.
The continent’s proven oil reserves constitute 8 percent of the world’s stock and those of natural gas amounting to 7 percent. Minerals account for an average of 70 percent of total African exports and about 28 percent of gross domestic product.
Even with such enormous resources, the continent’s poverty rate stands at 41 percent, and out of the world’s 28 poorest countries, 27 are in Africa all with a poverty rate above 30 percent.
Undoubtedly, IFFs have turned the continent into a net creditor. During the academy, TJNA empowered the target groups with skills to identify, track, and report illicit outflows from the continent.
Trade misinvoicing, tax evasions, and the criminal smuggling of cash, illicit goods ad human trafficking across borders are the main types of IFFs.
A recent Global Financial Integrity (GFI) report on the problem of trade misinvoicing found that illicit cross-border movement of money by hiding within the regular commercial system indicates massive levels of IFFs are going undetected through the global trading system.
“Approximately $ 8.7 trillion is the sum of the value gaps identified in trade between 135 developing countries and 36 advanced economies over the ten-year period 2008-2017,” says the GFI report.
Between 1980 and 2018, Sub-Saharan Africa received $2 trillion on foreign direct investment and official development assistance and emitted over $1 trillion on IFFs. Ethiopia, South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Nigeria account for over 50 percent of illicit financial flows in Sub Saharan Africa.
Harare, July 7 — Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa has eventually expelled the country’s Health Minister Obadiah Moyo after he was implicated in a 60 million USD corruption scandal related to COVID-19 material bought for government.
The arrest follows mounting pressure on Mr. Mnangagwa to quit by members of opposition political parties and civil society organizations who have set July 31 for crippling protests calling for the Zimbabwean leader to step down.
The disgraced Zimbabwean Minister’s alleged corrupt dealings were linked to Drax International LLC and Drax Consult SAGL, companies Zimbabwean prosecutors claimed were illegally awarded contracts by the country’s health ministry without a competitive tender process.
As Minister Moyo faced the boot, Delish Nguwaya, a local representative of Drax International, who had also been arrested as part of investigation into the Health Minister’s case, was on the same day granted bail of 50,000 Zimbabwean dollars by a Harare High Court Judge.
Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s son, Collins, is said to be closely linked to Drax International which has grabbed tenders to supply other COVID-19 material to the country’s Ministry of Health, but no moves have been made as yet to bring the President’s son to book.
Meanwhile, the now former Health Minister here was alerted of his expulsion from his ministerial post by Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Misheck Sibanda in a letter.
“Please be advised that His Excellency the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Cde ED Mnangagwa, has in terms of section 340, subsection (i), paragraph (f), as read with section 104, subsection (i) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe removed you, Obadiah Moyo from the office of Cabinet Minister and Minister of Government with immediate effect for conduct inappropriate for a Government minister,” said Sibanda in the letter to Moyo.
He (Moyo) becomes Zimbabwe’s third government Minister so far expelled from government during Mr. Mnangagwa’s reign, this after former Tourism Minister Prisca Mupfumira and also former Deputy Information Minister, Energy Mutodi.
But opposition political supporters doubt Mr. Mnangagwa’s sincerity after he dismissed his Health Minister.
“He (Mnangagwa) will only be taken seriously if his son also involved in the COVID-19 scandal is arrested,” said Gilbert Mugari, an opposition Movement for Democratic Change Alliance backer in Harare.
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