President Robert Mugabe blocked the release of a report by the ministry of finance that exposes the looting of the country’s sole steel manufacturing company, Zisco, by Cabinet members and senior Zanu-PF officials.
Mugabe’s cronies are believed to have been under-invoicing and using front companies to overcharge for goods and services provided to Zisco. Some of the goods and services were never supplied.
Last month, Zimbabwe Industry and International Trade Minister Obert Mpofu told a parliamentary portfolio committee on foreign affairs, industry and international trade that ”there are people making money out of Zisco … while Zisco is actually bleeding”. He added: ”There is a thick file, which, if you see it, you will be shocked. The culprits are colleagues of mine in Parliament.”
According to a verbatim account of Mpofu’s appearance before the committee on September 27, which was leaked to the Mail & Guardian, Mpofu made stunning revelations that also revealed Mugabe’s complicity in the saga.
Mpofu — who, along with Mugabe and the minister of anti-corruption, received the full report — was summoned by the committee to answer questions on the matter in Parliament.
At a stormy Cabinet meeting days after Mpofu’s appearance in front of the committee, Mugabe told the ministers that the report should not be made public. He also ordered Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa to advise the committee to halt further investigations into Zisco operations. This came after the National Economic Conduct Inspectorate (Neci) briefed Mugabe on the implications of making the report public, given the number of Cabinet ministers and legislators involved.
”That was going to dent the crediÂÂbility of his Cabinet, resulting in a confidence crisis,” a member of Neci, who probed Zisco, confided to the M&G.
Mpofu subsequently backtracked when he appeared before the same committee seven days later, saying that he had been ”quoted out of context”. Mpofu also pleaded with the committee not to release the report, arguing that it would do more harm than good. Mpofu said that if Neci’s file on Zisco was to be made public, ”there would not be a single investor” in Zimbabwe.
”There are a lot of negative perceptions about this country, and for us to kill these perceptions we need to avoid doing things that will confirm them,” said Mpofu. ”When you start talking about Zisco, that is okay when the situation has stabilised. But now it will create problems for us,” he said.
The M&G has been reliably informed that Mpofu’s somersault is a result of Mugabe’s desire to have the matter swept under the carpet.
In the four-page report of the meeting, marked ”private and confidential”, Senator Guy Georgias, a committee member, close Mugabe ally and Zanu-PF member, said the minister’s behaviour and the goings-on at Zisco were shocking.
”Facts at hand suggest impropriety, dishonesty, incompetence and outright betrayal of national trust,” he writes. ”[Mpofu and ministry officials] dithered, prevaricated, at times self-contradicted, and reneged on positions taken and statements made earlier,” said Georgias.
After apportioning blame to ”unnamed powerful colleagues and members of Parliament”, Mpofu then ”decided to recant and deny a statement he had made under oath”, says Georgias in another report that was leaked to the M&G.
At full capacity, Zisco produced two million tons of steel a year, but current production is less than 300 000 tons. The drop in production at Zisco stands in sharp contrast to the firming of the world steel price.