Zimbabwe’s ruling elite is sucking the country dry.
In 2008, targeted sanctions were imposed on Zim leaders for rigging elections and abusing human rights. This was followed by Zimbabwe’s exclusion from being part of the International financial system, i.e. they could not transact in US Dollars. Hence the plan to find ways of moving the country’s gold across the border and get cash in USD. The Central Bank- the reserve bank of Zimbabwe is official gold dealer in Zimbabwe, but the central bank does not have enough money to buy the gold. So, there are gold smugglers and money launderers such as Ewan Mcmillan and Kamlesh Pattin, aka Brother Paul, who buy the gold on behalf of the Central Bank, deliver the gold to Fidelity Printers & Refinery, a company owned by the Central Bank. In return these guys are given licenses to sell the gold abroad and bring the proceeds to Zimbabwe in United States Dollars. This is also used as a scheme to launder dirty money, for, when at the airport, the cash is declared as clean. The reason citizens should have a problem with this is because sometimes the money the mafia uses is money from organized crime, that is washed by manipulating resources the country should collectively be benefitting from.
The fact that the government trusts these gold mafia to go and sell their gold abroad shows that the Gold Mafia has been successful in attaining the trust of leaders. Or can say these leaders have been bought and are living in the pockets of “brother Paul and his competitor, McMillan. Kamlesh Pattin talks about how he has been using his money to buy support for the president and weaken the opposition as he did in Kenya. Comic, sadly, and beyond comprehension is the way he has been gallivanting from one state house to another, “crowning” African presidents as kings of Africa. What is ironic is the fact that he even the most feared presidents in Africa, such as Gadhafi, and Mugabe, were easily approachable to him. Tell me what I don’t know about the power of money! Pattin even loudly claims credit for changing Zimbabwe to the way it is. LOL, as if there is any positive change to write home about since the Junta unconstitutionally grabbed power. The tone he uses there is of someone who feels entitled to the gains Zimbabwe will make now and in future. It is this kind of mentality that will make these mafia feel pressured to help maintain the status quo. It seems the government cannot do anything without the help of the gold mafia. This confirms Paul’s statement that the Gold Mafia is bigger than the government. This simply shows the giants the opposition and all agents of change are up against. They are not only up against ZANU PF’s rule and its corrupt cabal, but the gold mafia which has cemented its grip on the country since the time of Mnangagwa’s predecessor Robert Mugabe. The gold mafia, through their manipulation, have been helping authoritarian regimes hold on to power through unconstitutional means, and so they would obviously hate any new government, especially one that is uncompromising in fighting corruption and misgovernance.
Worthy of mention in this article is Eubert Angel, the Ambassador to Europe and the Americas. Besides being a man of God, and I suppose as his job as presidential envoy, Angel appears in the investigation facilitating the buying and selling of gold, and being in a position to provide a private jet that picks gold for the buyers every week, illegally using his diplomatic cover. People like Eubert Angel pose another existential threat that the opposition needs to deal with ahead of the coming 2023 general elections. With the dirty work the religious leaders have been doing, it is left for all to see that ZANU PF was not showing any sign of repentance in including the clergy in its governance system, the move was rather strategic. Number 1, this move can be understood to be an effort to sanitize the government, and gunner the support of lukewarm Christians. Number 2, ZANU PF could have realized that in Zimbabwe, people have a tendency of following their prophets blindly. Therefore, they will support whatever and whomever their prophet would be supporting. Hence this move to appoint Angel as ambassador to 85 countries could be understood as the government’s way of support and vote buying on blind Christians.
Thank God Zimbabweans are not so blind nor stupid. Many have questioned the involvement of the prophet in selling out the country. In response, Angel says, from point 8 of his released statement, that he knew that the journalists who were posing as investors were playing him, and he was just playing along. And about the cellphone calls he made to Henrieta Rushwaya; he says those were decoys. Let’s assume this was true. Why would he play along? What was he trying to achieve? With the office he occupies, and his work as minister of the gospel, where does he get time to PLAY along with people whom he supposedly knows are about to discredit the country that he so “loves and represents?” We know the answer, ZANU PF is never in government to seriously work, no, not at all, but to play with taxpayers’ money, time, sweat and blood.
This documentary in essence shows what lovers of democracy are up against. We are facing leaders, a tyrannical bunch of clueless men and women, who have no respect for the Constitution. We are being ruled by a greedy cabal of corrupt politicians who have the backing of an immoral group of mafias that is so determined to protect the dirty and bloody hands that feed them. Ambassador Angel comes out saying that “The president will be president until he dies”. How? Are they going to change the constitution or is the president going to die before he finishes his second term. But with the so-called Vision 2030 dictatorial sounding mantra, it is unlikely that the minister of the prophet meant the latter. Inference can be drawn that amending the Constitution to serve their evil desire could be on the cards for ZANU PF.
Hence it is important that now, or just after the 4 episodes have been aired out, all progressive forces come together to demand that all government officials who have been implicated in the investigation be fired. Since there is nothing yet, that satisfies the impeachment of the president requirement, cabinet should be dissolved, and the implicated persons must face the wrath of the law. I personally support the motion to get to the streets on 18 April, which is supposed to be Independence Day, I say supposed deliberately because sadly, Zimbabweans are not yet independent, they are still suffering under the yoke of the new masters, the Gold Mafia.
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