Zimbabwean businessman claims to be penniless after government seizures

By Violet Gonda
28 February, 2006

South African based businessman Mutumwa Mawere continues his campaign to expose how his business empire has been systematically destroyed and sold off by the Zimbabwean government. He was in the USA last week where he told representatives from the International Monetary Fund that the government raided his companies to pay off the IMF loan. Zimbabwe recently surprised analysts by paying off the outstanding IMF debt.

Mawere said they were using money stolen from his businesses and claimed he has been made penniless and that all his businesses in South Africa have been liquidated as a result of the seizure.

We spoke with the businessman who says he is now in the UK to defend attempts by the Mugabe regime to complete the expropriation of his companies through the UK courts.

Mawere was accused of externalising foreign currency and was specified under the Prevention of Corruption Act, in 2004. His mines, together with companies in finance, insurance and agriculture were seized by presidential decree. He lost his flagship business, Shabanie Mashaba Mines (SMM Holdings), which he had bought for US$60 million from British company Turner & Newell in 1996, to the state. Following the expropriation of SMM Holdings by the government , an administrator Afaras Gwaradzimba, was appointed to replace the company’s board of directors and assume control of the company. Gwaradzimba is reported to have accused Mutumwa Mawere of asset-stripping the group and starving SMM of foreign currency, leading to its collapse last year.

Mawere was arrested in SA in 2004, but freed after Zimbabwe failed in its bid to get him extradited.

The businessman has in the past criticised the fact that the Zimbabwean government, which always attacks the British, is being defended and presented by British lawyers in the UK courts.

The Zimbabwe government claims it is owed Z$700 billion by SMM Holdings.

The businessman denies this saying the government has stolen his companies. “If the solution is that, if a company is sick you need an administrator, why is President Mugabe not proposing an administrator for Zimbabwe and place Zimbabwe under reconstruction?”

When asked how he could be penniless when he has companies in South Africa Mawere said even these companies, which he says were set up to support Zimbabwe, have been liquidated, “Imagine to be accused when you have created 19 000 jobs and being accused of externalisation when the jobs are internal? Can you imagine how painful it is?”

The businessman said the end result is that, “I got nothing, got expropriated but can’t go to Blair or Bush. The people who lost land can go to Australia, they can go elsewhere but we chose to be in Africa to remain in Africa so that we can contribute and now we are penniless. I maybe be looking for a job to drive a cab…”

Mawere goes to court on Wednesday where he is claiming against AMG Global Nominees Private Limited, the front company used by the government to expropriate his assets.