Advisory and fund management group, MafAfrique commemorated the Anti- Corruption symposium event organized by the African Parliamentarians Network against Corruption (APNAC), in conjunction with the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) and the Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ) under the theme: Taking Stock of the Anti-Corruption Agenda in Zimbabwe held in Harare on December 2019.
The symposium had three different panel sessions, one of which grilled President Mnangagwa over corruption in the mining and extractive sector. One of the panelists, MafAfrique representative for Zimbabwe and Southern African region, Moses Nkomo, told President Mnangagwa that the hazards of corruption in the country would affect the attainment of a $12 billion mining sector by 2023 because there was no transparency and accountability in the mining sector.
“The risk to the attainment of this vision is corruption, which is happening on exploration of mineral wealth and we read newspaper reports that said that there are some people that did exploration but the results have been withheld and now we need to depend on their benevolence to tell us the extent of mineral wealth that we have in this country,” Nkomo said.
“Mining contracts in this country are also shrouded in secrecy and this is fertile ground for corruption because in order for someone to be given mineral rights we are no longer aware of the scope of persuasion for someone to be given a favorable deal.” He added.
He further revealed that there were no systems to monitor actual production of minerals, adding that there was a high level of side marketing happening at Fidelity and Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC).
In his response, President Mnangagwa narrated how during his recent visit to Dubai he learnt that Zimbabwe’s gold was being smuggled out of the country. “On the issue of side marketing, I am not a gold panner, but I was in Dubai last month and a company there said they got US$60 million gold from Zimbabwe through the black market and they even told me that the money does not come into government coffers,” he said. “We now want to partner with ZMDC so that all the gold goes through Fidelity,” he said. ZACC deputy chairperson Kuziva Murapa said a taskforce had since been set up to investigate the allegations.
