Jonathan Moyo exposes Al Jazeera documentary 'lies'

According to Alexander James, the Al Jazeera journalist who narrates the 'Gold Mafia' documentary, small-scale miners produce half of Zimbabwe's gold, but @ReserveBankZIM does not have enough money to by the gold from them.

Furthermore, the documentary uses @BitiTendai [a former finance minister who was in a position to know] to assert that 80% of the gold mined in Zimbabwe is smuggled out of the country.

Given these two fundamental background facts, on what factual basis does Al Jazeera justify its use of the 'Gold Mafia' documentary to gaslight the #RBZ as the 'laundromat' of gold smuggling and money laundering not only in Zimbabwe but also in Southern Africa?

Is it a case of Al Jazeera seeking to make the #RBZ the collateral damage of its documentary, as part of a not so hidden wider political agenda?

Gold is not smuggled out of Zimbabwe - and dirty money related to gold smuggling is not laundered - through the formal banking and financial services superintended by the #RBZ.

As told by the Al Jazeera documentary, the dirty money is laundered in Dubai, and the gold is smuggled out of Zimbabwe through the country's porous border entry-and-exit points that are not manned or overseen by the #RBZ.

So, just how does a "broke #RBZ", which does not have enough money to buy half of the country's gold produced by small-scale miners become a laundromat?  

And if 80% of the gold mined in Zimbabwe is smuggled out of the country, how can the #RBZ be at the centre of that smuggling, when it does not control or oversee the country's borders and its entry-and-exit points?

These questions are important because, as a regulator, the #RBZ works through the formal banking and financial services of the country, which are formally linked to the international banking and financial system.

The Al Jazeera documentary has not presented a shred of evidence to show that the #RBZ has abused [let's say used] the country's banking and financial system to aid and abet the gold smuggling and money laundering operations of the 'Gold Mafia'.

Yet, following Episode 2, citing the Al Jazeera documentary, @SABCNews ran a scurrilously malicious story claiming that #RBZ was facing sanctions after it was allegedly implicated by the documentary in gold smuggling and money laundering.  

After Episode 3, @PacheduZW - which is using the documentary to mobilise an ill-fated "shutdown Zimbabwe" campaign for this year's Independence Day on 18 April - posted false and manifestly outrageous tweets on 7 April 2023 ridiculously claiming that "#RBZ was at the centre of all the gold looting" and "at the centre of the money laundering".

To be sure, and without any doubt or fear or favour whatsoever, @ReserveBankZIM must be held fully accountable for any wrongdoing by it or its officials; but the wrongdoing must be factually demonstrated or proven, and not merely alleged.  The Al Jazeera documentary has not demonstrated or proven any of gold smuggling or money laundering against @ReserveBankZIM.

None whatsoever.

It is an established principle that he who alleges must prove his allegations. James Alexander has embarrassingly failed to prove his allegations in the Al Jazeera documentary against the #RBZ. That cannot be, and will never be, good investigative journalism by any stretch of the imagination; not in Qatar, not London and certainly not in Harare.

Therefore, Al Jazeera will do itself some professional good if its fourth and final episode today, sets the record straight regarding its unproven and unprovable allegations that the @ReserveBankZIM is the laundromat of the 'Gold Mafia'.  That would be the right thing to do, if not today then sooner rather than later!