Kudakwashe Tagwirei in cabinet: cattle thief now in herding the herd

Kudakwashe Tagwirei

THE shocking appointment of Kudakwashe Tagwirei as minister of economic development and investment promotion is a new low, even by the vacous standards of the self-proclaimed Second Republic.

It is breathtaking arrogance and hubris on the part of Emmerson Mnangagwa. A statement that he is untouchable and oblivious of the national mood and national interest.

We have consistently argued that the center of gravity of this regime is looting extraction and rent. Nothing else.

It is this mafia mentality that has driven the 2030 Agenda and is bringing the country to a point of no return through the unrelenting pursuit of the ill-fated Constitutional Amendment No. 3.

This appointment conflates the line between power and private enrichment. It is the personification of State Capture. The Gupturisation of the Republic.

Kuda Tagwirei is the kingpin of massive extraction. His shadow permeats every corridor of looting, from fuel, mines, construction, tenders, banks, supermarkets and even churches.

He has an incestous relationship with Treasury, has received more Treasury Bills than anyone and purely on the basis of conflict of interest cannot be a government minister.

Tagwirei was a major beneficiary of Command Agriculture. The Public Accounts Committee I chaired investigated his companies 2015-2018. We found over US$1 billion received, mostly in Treasury Bills. We could not find a single bag of maize or fertiliser delivered in return.

Those questions have never been answered.

On January 2 2019, he received a US$360 million Treasury Bill. Under SI 33 of 2019 all foreign obligations were converted to local currency. His TB escaped the haircut.

In June/July 2019 he aflooded the market with that US dollar Bill and the RTGS collapsed. RBZ froze accounts, IMF raised concerns, then nothing.

He has benefited from numerous other Treasury Bills with no comprehensive account from the minister of finance.

Most notorious is the US$1.9 billion payment for 35 percent of shares in Kuvimba Mining when it was placed under the Mutapa Fund.

The US$1.9 TB was paid out without valuations or justification.

This TB like Command Agriculture is a criminal docket on its own .

Tagwirei controls Zimbabwe’s US$4 fuel industry.

He was awarded the Dema diesel plant contract and ZESA was forced to buy power at 34 US cents per kWh while Eskom imports were 12 cents. The public paid the difference.

Millions of litres of duty-free diesel for Dema were diverted and sold on the market.

Zimbabweans pay some of the highest fuel prices in the region. A large part is levies and rents that ultimately end in Tagwirei pockets.

He has been linked to land and title deeds, First Mutual Life shares, and shares in two major banks.

These need forensic audits, not political slogans: all TBs, Command Agriculture, Dema, fuel, Kuvimba, Mutapa, Trababalas Interchange, roads and churches.

To then place a criminal like Tagwirei in a treasury ministry responsible for national coffers is an act of treason. It brings the country into disrepute.

More so when the appointment itself is void, Constitutional Amendment No. 3 is contested. Courts must decide. You cannot wish away the Constitution by exercising power.

In Gandanzara village there was a notorious cattle thief, Faranisi. He stole goats, cattle, sheep and terrorised villages.

One day headman Zvaendwa of the Nyati totem appointed Faranisi to guard the village cattle (kuenda kujana).

The village erupted. They went for Nyati and demanded he removes Faranisi.

The cattle thief has been appointed to herd the cattle. We must not stay silent.

Cry, the beloved country. Cry!

Tendai Biti was Zimbabw’s finance minister from 2009 to 2013