Zimbabwe Government Urged To Withdraw Licences From Gold Dealers In Al Jazeera Documentary

The government of Zimbabwe has been urged to withdraw trade licences from gold dealers implicated in an Al Jazeera documentary on the illicit trade of the precious mineral.

Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ), a non-profit local chapter of the international movement against corruption, said it was closely following the Aljazeera expose and is demanding that the government launches investigations into the cases. NewsDay cites TIZ as saying:

Law enforcement, anti-corruption agencies and regulatory authorities should immediately revoke gold trade and export licences given to the implicated individuals and corporations, pending an investigation into the allegations.

Episode 01 of Al Jazeera’s documentary – Gold Mafia – was released last week, episode 02 is expected this Thursday.

In the documentary, Tendai Biti, a former Minister of Finance and Economic Development, claimed that Zimbabwe was losing gold worth about US$1.2 billion every year.

The documentary implicates a number of government institutions including the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)’s Fidelity Printers and Refineries.

Individuals implicated in gold smuggling operations include:

1). Henrietta Rushwaya, the president of the Zimbabwe Miners Federation. She is also a gold dealer licensed to buy and export gold.

2). Uebert Angel, the presidential envoy to the Americas and Europe. He engages potential gold buyers and links them with Zimbabwean authorities including Henrietta Rushwaya.

3). Simon Rudland owns Gold Leaf Tobacco. He allegedly lends the RBZ money to buy gold from miners and export it.

3). Lamkesh Pattni, exports gold bars and jewellery from Zimbabwe through his company Suzan General Trading, which gets paid an incentive by the government to sell gold overseas. He allegedly not bringing all the proceeds from gold sales to Zimbabwe. 

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