Zanu-PF councillor to host Floyd Mayweather in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwean gold dealer-cum-politician Scott Pedzisayi Sakupwanya will be hosting retired American boxer Floyd Mayweather in the capital Harare at the end of this week.

Sakupwanya is the councillor for Mabvuku, a suburb in Harare. He's vying for a parliamentary seat at the upcoming general elections on 23 August.

News of Mayweather making the trip to Harare did the rounds last week when Sakupwanya said he would host the retired boxer, but there was no word from Mayweather until late on Sunday.

In a video posted on Twitter and shared widely on WhatsApp, Mayweather announced his "motherland tour of Africa" that will start in Harare and end in Johannesburg.

"Africa, the moneyman is on his way. We start off in Zimbabwe on July 13th and 14th. I need everybody in Africa to mark your calendars.

"July 15th and 16th in Johannesburg, South Africa," Mayweather said in the video.

The two's first encounter was in Dubai in May last year.

The state-controlled Herald newspaper called their meeting a product of the Zimbabwean government's "engagement and re-engagement policy", which seeks to "[improve] relations between Zimbabwe and other countries and global institutions]".

Sakupwanya had been in Dubai following the death of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the second president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the ruler of Abu Dhabi, who served from 2004 until his death.

At the same time, Mayweather was scheduled for an exhibition fight with his former sparring partner, Don Moore. The fight was cancelled because of the sheikh's death.

Sakupwanya rose to prominence in 2020, when pictures of him posing with gold bars and money amounting to what was said to be $5 million (R94 million) in cash went viral. His flashy lifestyle is similar to that of Mayweather.

In Al Jazeera's Gold Mafia documentary, "a four-part investigation by Al Jazeera's investigative unit which revealed a series of gold smuggling gangs in southern Africa", self-styled prophet Uebert Angel said Sakupwanya was "the biggest gold guy in Zimbabwe. He's right there; he's in his house, sleeping on five million US dollars."

According to Al Jazeera, Sakupwanya used to be the help of another implicated gold dealer, Ewan Macmillan, but has since overtaken his former boss.

Macmillan was also featured in the documentary. In one of the interviews, he claimed: "I have [Zimbabwean President Emmerson] Mnangagwa's gold-studded Rolex because the son ran into debt and had to pay the debt off."

"I paid the debt off and he said: ‘Please don't tell my dad.' I've got the dad's watch; it's blue-faced with gold studs all around. So, I've [got] all that in a safe."

He also claimed to be the president's business partner and that he once spent 60 days in jail to protect Mnangagwa during the era of former president Robert Mugabe.

Last week, Macmillan apologised to Mnangagwa and others he implicated in the documentary, saying: "I made many statements under the influence of alcohol that were boastful, untrue, derogatory and malicious, [and which] have caused harm to those around me".

Meanwhile, Sakupwanya is stopping at nothing to win the Mabvuku seat for the ruling Zanu-PF; he claimed to have used about R47.5 million to rehabilitate roads in the suburb.