Nairobi, Kenya — The Al Jazeera documentary series on gold smuggling in Zimbabwe and the subsequent reduction of the country from a respected state to a den of lions has all what it takes for President Emmerson Mnangagwa to step down. All the unethical mafia-style smuggling of the gold and laundering of the proceeds was facilitated mainly by the State apparatus being commandeered by none other than the incompetence of the president of Zimbabwe and his entire ill-informed horde of criminals.
A close analysis of the documentary series shows that Mnangagwa is clueless about running a country. The team around him who include the prophet of doom Eubert Angel ironically elaborated the non-existence of a formal government in Zimbabwe and how unregulated the exploitation of mineral resources like gold is.
Mnangagwa allowed the reserve bank to be run by a mafia group whose economic knowledge is uncouth and dangerous. No wonder why John Mangudya, the governor of the Reserve bank of Zimbabwe, was irritated that Al Jazeera exposed this unscrupulous gold money laundering and put him at the centre of the operations. His opposition to the airing of the documentary series was a replica of a mafia boss as opposed to a chief executive of a national reserve bank.
The language and demeanour he used was typical of a rogue criminal who knew his business dealings were not in tandem with world class business ethics. If the governor of the reserve bank was sanctioned by Mnangagwa to deal with gold smugglers how much did he drain from the national coffers. Honestly Zimbabwe has been hijacked by economic terrorists whose aim is to devour the national cake with their families while the rest of the population are wallowing in abject poverty.
The ruling Zanu PF party was wrong to replace Robert Mugabe with Mnangagwa. Many of us, though opposed to Zanu PF but did not take heed of Mugabe's words following the coup due to national anger caused by this party. Mugabe, in his honest assessment, said Mnangagwa was not a leader. In fact, he lacks the knowledge, the organisation and attitude of a statesman. Remember Mnangagwa rose to fame through violence like the famous forays into Matabeleland including KGB style activities of maiming and killing political opponents.
Following these revelations by Al Jazeera, the citizens of Zimbabwe, all opposition political parties and pressure groups including Zanu PF should not allow Mnangagwa to stand in the coming general elections. The blame for this gold smuggling and money laundering squarely rests on General Constantino Chiwenga who was actively involved in restoring Mnangagwa to the presidency following his infamous escape to South Africa. A permanent haven for Mnangagwa in South Africa would have saved Zimbabwean gold from being depleted without any gain to the citizens.
There is no way Zimbabwe could have created jobs for its young graduates from colleges and universities when there was no reserve bank to facilitate the running of the economy. The constant blaming of sanctions by Zanu PF is a decoy to blind people about their illegal gold smuggling. Why would Zimbabwe gold be purified in Dubai when Zimbabwe used to have that technology during the operations of big multi-national companies like Anglo-American cooperation and Ashanti Gold. This Dubai debacle was created to hide their illegal activities. It is a shame that Mnangagwa was running and paying two entities to run the country the first one being the official government made up of legal structures (though corrupt to the core) and the second one was a shadowy criminal cabal made up of false prophets like Eubert Angel, uncouth self-styled thugs cum false prophets like Passion Java including world class thugs who had the audacity to challenge the nation to do what they want about their plundering of gold. The money lost in these corrupt unethical governance practices drowned the Zimbabwean people into abject poverty and no hope for national economic recovery. Honestly, Mnangagwa and the rest of the mafia members deserve a special place in hell for the unmerciful activities directed at the poor but peace-loving Zimbabweans.
We now know that the purported law to punish people criticising Zanu PF abroad was in fact meant to protect the Gold mafia against detection as opposed to face-value insinuation that it was a defence against unpatriotic individuals. Who among us is unpatriotic? Mnangagwa and his thuggish cohort or peace-loving Zimbabweans questioning how the resources of the country are being looted?
From available evidence, it is a travesty of justice to leave Mnangagwa in charge of our beloved country and minerals. The fact is, Zimbabwe has no institutions to rectify the misrule and destruction brought about by Zanu PF. Everything is being run by Mnangagwa and his shadowy criminal cabal. We now know that General Chiwenga is just a place holder and has long since become irrelevant in Zimbabwean politics since the day he in installed Mnangagwa into the presidency.
With the level of corruption, we have now seen through the revelations of the Al Jazeera, it is safe to say that the coming election is a fuss. It lacks integrity and respect for democracy and humanity. The election will be better conducted with Mnangagwa out of government. In earnest, Mnangagwa has a case to answer not only to the Zimbabwean law enforcement agencies and citizens, but also to Interpol for the level of anarchy and facilitation of Gold and money laundering.
The big question is - if we now know these facts around gold and money laundering, what then could be happening with diamonds, emeralds, platinum and other precious diamonds that Mnangagwa and his cohorts have been plundering. This situation is too serious to be ignored by human rights activists, progressive political outfits like the Citizen Coalition for Change (CCC) and Zimbabweans in general. This is now the time for all these forces to come together and conjure a lasting union to vote Zanu PF out of power for ever. Our chance is now to do it and none but ourselves can break these Zanu PF slavery chains and free ourselves from this diabolic incarceration.
For a long time, Zanu PF has been trading lies about sanctions, yet they were busy bringing down the country through minerals and money laundering. Zanu PF has staffed its government with people who have no clue on how to turn around the economy other than being experts of destruction. Mnangagwa's government should be a lesson to any incoming new political dispensation. Any continuation of such levels of resource depletion, poor governance and political patronage will take Zimbabwe beyond economic redemption.
It is important to remind each other that all this thuggery and economic mayhem is coming against a culture of violence that has been perpetrated by Zanu PF since independence to date. The gains of independence that Zanu PF and PF Zapu brought in1980 has now been reversed. There is clearly no difference between Mnangagwa and the colonial government led by Ian Douglas Smith under the Rhodesia Front.
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Zanu PF and the Rhodesia front are colonialists whose thinking and welfare improvement is limited to their friends and the underworld mafia. Any declaration by Zanu PF that it has won the coming election will be a mockery of the intelligence of Zimbabweans in light of the gold mafia revelations.
The next level of organisation for every Zimbabwean is to register and encourage every citizen to vote against Zanu PF in the coming election so that we can put these mineral launderers to rest.
The future of Zimbabwe has been doomed by Zanu PF in our faces. Zimbabweans should stand up and make representations to all influential international political bodies to make sure that the coming elections are not stolen again. Brothers and sisters this is all from me for this week writing from a small hotel room in Nairobi Kenya. Let's meet again next week. God bless Zimbabwe.
Dr Mathew Nyashanu is a Senior Lecturer in Public Health and Admissions tutor for the MA in Public Health. He is a Zimbabwean academic based in the institute of Health & Allied Professions at Nottingham Trent University. He is a social scientist and public health specialist who has contributed widely to the strengthening of Health systems in many low- and middle-income countries. The writings are purely his views and do not represent Nottingham Trent University.
