The corruption and self-enrichment that define Zimbabwe’s government has led to the formation of cartels in various economic sectors, including mining, energy, transport, and agriculture, according to a report
published by the South African Daily Maverick: ” A. Study of Cartel Dynamics “reveals how the 2017 military coup that overthrew autocratic leader Robert Mugabe failed to remove the kleptocratic power brokers and patronage networks around him.
The result was a minor reshuffle with his successor the same ZANU-PF- Party, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who merely replaced him as head of a highly corrupt political and economic structure that oversaw cartelization of the Zimbabwean economy.
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“[These cartels] are against the public interest and are established through collusion between the private sector and influential people Individuals marked politicians to gain monopoly positions, fix prices and suppress competition, ”the document claims.
While the most obvious examples relate to the systematic plundering of the gold, platinum, and diamond reserves in Zimbabwe, other sectors are suffering equally corrupt business practices: for example the tobacco industry.
Zimbabwe is Africa’s largest tobacco producer, but it is urgently needed. These companies declare that their cigarettes are for export, apply the subsequent discount on excise taxes, and either smuggle the cigarettes back into Zimbabwe directly to be sold on the black market or to neighboring South Africa.
Pacific cigarettes make up the majority of the confiscated tobacco in South Africa. The Pacific Cigarette Company, which makes it, is jointly owned by Robert Mugabe’s nephew, Adam Molai.
In addition, the report highlights allegations that [the head of the Zimbabwe Miners Federation], the first lady, Auxillia Mnangagwa, and one of the sons of the President, Collins Mna Ngagwa are part of an “elite trade cartel” that smuggles gold out of Zimbabwe. At the same time, it was found that President Mnangagwa himself was identified as the beneficiary of illegal profits from gold mining in a 2003 court case.
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This is the same man he swore to in 2017 to fight illicit financial flows that make Zimbabwe up to $ 3 billion a year withheld, keep a third of the population in extreme poverty, and rule with impunity in a country that still ranks 157 out of 180 in Transparency International’s annual corruption perception index.
According to this synopsis, it is now at the center of the corrupted political, business, and military context that makes up Zimbabwe’s cartels.
It is unclear who compiled the 64-page report that the Daily Maverick identified as a document that ” a post-mortem cancer who killed the Zimbabwean dream of freedom and independence. “
The sales outlet stated that it had actually checked the report and” was able to vouch for the accuracy of the information it contained “. Because of the threat of repression, the respondents are all anonymous, and records of interviews have been destroyed, it said.
OCCRP / Balkantimes.press