The state-owned Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI) has come under the spotlight for a controversial sale of weapons of war to the 70 suspected mercenaries currently being held in Harare.
During the initial remand hearing for the suspects on Tuesday ZDI was officially confirmed as the supplier of a large consignment of arms to the group.
State lawyers said the firm, which supplies army uniforms, field equipment and ammunition, sold arms to the alleged mercenaries without an end-user certificate.
Prosecutor Mary Zimba-Dube told a makeshift court at Chikurubi Maximum Security prison, where the suspects are being held and tried, that ZDI sold “dangerous weapons” to the alleged mercenaries.
She alleged, however, that the deal was part of a trap to net the suspects who are facing six charges relating to the possession of weapons and of plotting a “violent coup” against Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
Zimba-Dube said ZDI sold the mercenaries 61 AK-47 assault rifles and 45 000 rounds of ammunition; 300 hand grenades; 20 PKM light machine guns and 30 000 rounds of ammunition; 50 PRM machine guns; and 100 RPG 7 anti-tank launchers and 1 000 rounds of ammunition.
She also said the firm sold 5 080/60mm mortar bombs, two 60mm mortar tubes, and 500 boxes of 7,62 by 39mm ammunition.
ZDI received an initial deposit of $90 000 for the arms that cost $180 000 in total.
The company’s group captain, Hope Mutize, is said to have conducted the transaction. In the end, the arms were never handed over as the alleged mercenaries were arrested first.
Although the state is claiming that this was part of a trap against the suspects, ZDI’s operations have now come under scrutiny.
There are strong suspicions in official and public circles that ZDI could have entered into the deal unaware of the intentions of the suspects, only to retreat later.
This suspicion is strengthened by speculation that some ZDI officials who brokered the arms arrangement have been arrested for trying to cash in on the deal.
It is understood those who were “out of the official loop” in the ZDI arms deal wanted to exploit the opportunity for personal gain, ignorant of the alleged trap.
Sources say some top ZDI officials and army officers could become entangled in the arms deal during the trial of the alleged mercenaries. Although there has been no confirmation of allegations of a shady arms deal, government and ZDI officials have so far been unable to shed light on this issue.
This official conspiracy of silence — by commission or omission — has only helped to compound claims that ZDI is trying to disentangle itself from a dirty arms deal.
The situation is further worsened by ZDI’s questionable record in arms sales and brokerage.
ZDI was in 1997 involved in a mysterious Sri Lankan arms disappearance that has since been officially swept under the carpet.
A ship carrying a ZDI consignment of 32 398/81mm mortar bombs vanished, allegedly while on its way to Sri Lanka with arms for that country’s army under a $6-million government-to-government deal.
However, investigations into the fate of the Stillius Limasol, which was supposed to be carrying the consignment of mortars and other military hardware, revealed that there was no ship registered by that name.
Official claims that the Tamil Tigers, who are fighting for a separate homeland in Sri Lanka, intercepted the weapons, failed to stick.
In the end, Colombian officials accused senior officers in the Sri Lankan army and ZDI officials of arranging a stage-managed disappearance in order to defraud the Sri Lankan government.
ZDI, which sells arms directly and does brokerage on behalf of third parties, lost millions of dollars in the process.
The Sri Lankan army had made a down payment of $1,8-million but later refused to pay the balance after the arms disappeared.
ZDI had contracted a South Korean company, Kolon International, to ship the arms.
But Kolon refused to transfer the money it had received to ZDI, saying it had used some of it to pay commissions, which some said were actually bribes, to senior Sri Lankan army officials who had facilitated the arms supply deal.
Attempts by ZDI to recover its money from Kolon eventually collapsed after a Singaporean law firm Katter Hwang & Partner, which was hired in 1999 to take the Korean firm to the International Arbitration Centre, withdrew from the case at the last minute.
A few years ago Burundi’s FDD rebels were in Zimbabwe looking for arms, ammunition and uniforms. This consolidated the view that some of ZDI’s clients could be shady groups and individuals.