A South African chrome miner paid
$3 million to firms linked to the
Zimbabwean president and vice
president following a $120 million
deal signed in November 2017.
Fond of fast cars and cigars, South
African wheeler-dealer Zunaid Moti
dabbled in property development
and private jets, but his main business in Zimbabwe was processing
chrome. In 2014 he bought 70% of
African Chrome Fields (ACF), a
chrome mining outfit based in central
Zimbabwe.
By 2015, ACF was a well-connected
firm: it had formed a joint venture
with the Zimbabwe Defence Forces
(ZDF) and hired then-Vice President
Emmerson Mnangagwa’s son as
a consultant. Businessman Lishon
Chipango—identified by a source as
then-ZDF commander General Constantine Chiwenga’s “investment
manager”—indirectly owned shares
in ACF via Spincash Investments, a
*
Unless otherwise indicated, all dollar amounts are given in US$.
Moti Group holding company that
held the remaining 30% of ACF.
Moti signed a deal with ruling party
benefactor Kudakwashe “Kuda”
Tagwirei on November 17, 2017—in
the middle of the week-long coup
that brought President Mnangagwa
and Vice President Chiwenga to
power—in which Tagwirei paid
$120 million*
for Spincash’s 30% of
ACF. A politically connected industrialist who later became an advisor
to Mnangagwa, Tagwirei was the
subject of separate corruption allegations relating to a power plant and
an agricultural program at the time
of the deal.
The Spincash deal was followed by
a money-moving operation in which
Moti’s companies paid $130 million
in 595 installments to a mix of established firms, companies whose
records are missing, and politically
linked entities in Zimbabwe. In
December 2017 and January 2018