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Jonathan Moyo fights in Mawere's corner

by Mandla Ndlovu
21 Nov 2018 at 19:15hrs | Views
Exiled Former G40 Kingpin Professor Jonathan Moyo has condemned the Act of parliament that was used to takeover South Africa based business tycoon Mutumwa Mawere's Shabani Mashaba mines calling it diabolic and spiteful.

"I think the Reconstruction of State Indebted Companies Act of 2004  was a diabolic and spiteful piece of legislation conceived by Patrick Chinamasa at the instigation of Emmerson Mnangagwa to target Mutumwa Mawere,"Prof. Moyo said.

"Of all the lawyers I worked with in govt and ZanuPF, I found Mnangagwa a bush lawyer and Chinamasa a Rhodesian lawyer with no sense of justice!"

Shabani Mashava Mines, in Zvishavane and Mashava, ground to a halt in 2008, three years after the government seized them from Mawere, under a controversial Reconstruction law that allows the State to take over assets of businesses deemed to be insolvent and incapable of servicing loans and charges owed to State institutions and agencies.

The mines were subsequently placed under the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC), which has been looking for an investor to put up $140 million required to re-open the mines.

Former President Robert Mugabe in 2009 said he had not been apprised of all the facts when he approved the seizure of Mawere's business empire and promised to look into the case which he did. Mugabe promptly appointed Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono to look into Mawere's case and recommend a way forward.

In a dramatic U-turn, Gono, who had earlier led the state case against Mawere after accusing the businessman of contravening the country's foreign exchange laws, then recommended to Mugabe that Mawere's companies be given back to him because the circumstances in which they were seized were unjust.

Gono's full report to Mugabe then sparked a fierce battle between Gono and the then Mugabe's ministers opposed to giving the companies back. Several meetings  were held in which the then  Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and current President Emmerson Mnangagwa opposed Gono's report. Sources close to the meetings said Mnangagwa and Chinamasa were shocked at Gono's U-turn because he formulated the charges that led to the seizure of Mawere's companies.

Source - Byo24News