Opinion / Columnist
Auctioning Zimbabwe -The shady individuals and companies behind
05 Dec 2011 at 07:27hrs | Views
Mugabe's brutal regime
According to sources close to them, Zanu PF and the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) officials continue to manipulate indigenisation rules to secure financial gain for their private lifestyles – something which comes as no surprise to any of us. A lot of corrupt deals are clearly taking place in Zimbabwe today between Zanu PF/ZDF and private business. All this is done with the help of shady foreign companies and trusted individuals who are given subsidised licenses to exploit Zimbabwe's natural resources – especially minerals –in return for payoffs that go to fund Zanu PF activities and the lavish private lifestyles of senior ZDF officials. We all know that Zanu PF has been rewarding companies and individuals that pay for their members' expensive lifestyles for decades and the pattern is still the same today, with a new set of laws being manipulated in the same old ways, leaving ordinary people who are supposed to be the real beneficiaries languishing in poverty.
'The companies' – Cases of wolves in sheepskins
Wolf Number 1: Renaissance Capital (RenCap). Described in its website as a leading independent investment bank operating in Russia, the CIS, Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and other high-opportunity emerging and frontier markets, RenCap boasts publicly that it has direct access to the Minister of Indigenisation and even more senior Zanu PF officials. The company has even offered to help other companies to get around the rules on indigenisation in the mining sector, which they do by insisting on becoming their local advisor. This "local advisor" role has most often gone to RenCap's Co-CEO for Zimbabwe, Terence Mukupe, who is well connected to the President's office. He avoids damage to RenCap's image by presenting himself as an independent consultant. Rumour has it that Mukupe is also used by Zanu PF to send secret messages back into the mining companies.
RenCap's website also claims that it promotes charitable and philanthropic work in developing countries. A section on the company's website reads: "Just as Renaissance Group is dedicated to its work in emerging and frontier markets, we are committed to the people for whom these territories are home. Our philanthropic and charitable initiatives are driven by a strong commitment to corporate social responsibility, which takes the form of both direct funding and employee volunteer programmes around the world." There is not much evidence of their involvement in sensible charity work but it is well known that they are raking in millions from Zimbabwe's mining industry, twisting indigenisation laws that were intended to bring benefit to ordinary Zimbabweans, and allowing their Co-CEO in Zimbabwe to facilitate deals on behalf of Mugabe and his cronies.
Wolf number 2: Benny Steimetz Group Resources Limited (BSGR). BSGR, based in Guernsey, is also doing deals with Mugabe. Fully owned by the Benny Steimetz Group, an Israeli mining and diamond trading company founded in 1940, the company has joined in the looting of the Zimbabwe Diamond rush. Worse still, I hear they have recently offered large sums of cash in direct support of Mugabe. As far as I'm concerned, this makes them an accessory to Mugabe's acts of brutality against his own people.
Conference 2011, party debt and the begging bowl
Every year we see Zanu PF demanding more of the business community ahead of their annual Conference, which for 2011 begins tomorrow in Bulawayo. Both legitimate and illegitimate businesses find themselves at this time of the year, having to donate to the Zanu PF begging bowl. Some businesses treat it as protection fees as they have seen how many businesses have been lost to Zanu PF under their rule. Building on the land seizures and farm invasions, the indigenous laws are now forcing businesses to surrender their shares, most of the time in a corrupt manner to benefit Zanu PF senior officials.
The man who likes avoiding cameras: Sam Pa
This year the activity is looking identical to what Zanu PF did to raise money in 2010, when meetings were held to brainstorm ways of clearing party debt and to raise money for the conference and it was agreed that the party should work with businessmen including Sam Pa of China Sonangol and tycoon Billy Rautenbach. Zanu PF tried to keep these deals out of the public eye, most likely because of the shady nature of the businessmen involved.
Sam Pa is a controversial figure who uses different names in his dealings around the world – to my eyes a sign of his unwillingness to be accountable. He is known to have powerful links with oppressive regimes ranging from Latin America to Africa, where he seems to have managed to keep most of his activity out of the media. The Economist tells us he runs an "International Syndicate", which he built through his Cold War contacts around the world, and through which he causes massive harm to communities by exploiting countries' resources and propping up oppressive regimes. Known as the China International Fund or China Sonangol, the syndicate's main business in Africa is located in Angola where it is heavily exploiting the oil business. Angola is known to be rich in oil and it's one of the most repressive regimes in Africa. In Zimbabwe, Mr Pa has expanded his business into the Diamonds industry and built links to the Zanu PF inner circle. He almost certainly provided funds and equipment to the Zimbabwe Central Intelligence Organisation to support it in ensuring the 2008 electoral "victory" for Mugabe and Zanu PF. And it seems he's been at this in a number of African countries, where companies he represents have manipulated networks within the elites and negotiated in secret to secure access to strategic minerals.
Billy Rautenbach was sold a portion of the Anglo-American Platinum concession in 2008 for at least US$1m. In return he gave millions of dollars to Constantine Chiwenga, the head of Zimbabwe National
Billy Rautenbach: The man who sells guns to Zimbabwe's enemies,
Army and to Happyton Bonyongwe, the CIO boss. In the late 1990s, Billy's name was on the list of the top 20 criminals in South Africa and he was rumoured to have been involved in drug dealing, gun-running, smuggling, bribery, corruption and bankrolling Robert Mugabe's troops in the Congo war – an impressive list of criminal activities even by Zanu PF standards.
The list of shady individuals that fund Zanu PF activities is long – another two of the associated crooks are John Bredenkamp and Nicholas van Hoostraten.
Bredenkamp is a man with a dark brutal history against the black people of Zimbabwe and Africans. In the days of UDI under Ian Smith, Bredenkamp was the main person tasked by the Smith regime to buy weapons on their behalf. At the time the regime was under international sanctions, making it impossible to purchase military equipment directly. Bredenkamp became useful by helping them to get around the sanctions – supposedly he participated actively because he regarded all black people as his sworn enemies. In 1999 Bredenkemp put his skills to use again, this time on behalf of the black government of Zimbabwe. In response to Mugabe's targeted brutality against his own people the European Union imposed sanctions, and Bredenkamp's skills of getting around sanctions came in handy once again as the Mugabe regime relied on him to purchase its weapons of oppression, using his shady contacts all over the world.
Nicholas van Hoogstraten boasts of being a loan shark for important people in Zimbabwe and is known for his closeness to Robert Mugabe and other Zanu PF officials.
Nicholas van Hoogstraten, the Man who owns Mugabe
The South Africa Mail & Guardian recently reported that in 2006 he showed journalists documents from a US$10m loan to Mugabe, using this to claim that everyone who mattered in Harare was in his pocket. These twisted individuals have become extremely powerful and they are said to be currently involved in major fundraising drives to sponsor Zanu PF, preferring the current status quo in Zimbabwe to the uncertainty of change and the risk that their corrupt behaviour might be exposed.
Personal gain & lack of moral consistency
On the other side of the same deals are the senior Zanu PF and Zimbabwe Defence Forces officials who – as I have said many times in previous posts – are looting their country's resources for personal gain. The fact that individuals like Bredenkamp and van Hoogstraten can get their hands into almost anything they want in Zimbabwe in exchange for the favours they do for key people in Zanu PF exposes the personal greed behind the indigenisation law and other similar processes. Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe's Minister of Defence, for example, has accumulated a large amount of cash from joint ventures with Rautenbach and van Hoogstraten. In fact, his most productive fundraiser for a previous attempt at an internal Zanu PF attempted coup d'état known as the "Dinyane Saga" was an agricultural venture with Billy Rautenbach. With Mnangagwa as the majority shareholder, Rautenbach could guarantee that he would be left untouched.
Not willing to share?
While Zanu PF and Mugabe preach hate against the West and other nations that speak against them, the shocking truth is their willingness to get in bed with former UDI activists who fought against black Zimbabweans in the struggle for independence. By the look of things the party is determined to keep power within the grip of its ageing elite and can offer no explanation for why talented young people are not given the opportunities that they want and deserve. Their own party youth are not allowed to come through and take on leadership roles, as this would jeopardise the old guard's monopoly on suspect business deals that are creating a lot of personal wealth. The existing set up seems to offer no hope for the younger generation. Even the Minister for Youth and Empowerment, Kasukuwere, cannot help redress the balance for fear that it will appear that he is building up his own political power base. His frustrations were expressed in the recent Zimbabwe Wikileaks, where he suggested to the Americans that Mugabe needed to be pushed off the top seat to allow new blood to take over the party and the country's leadership. If Zanu PF is not willing to share with its own members the chances for the ordinary citizen are clearly even worse. Unless and until Zimbabweans fight for a change of government and system, the country will continue empowering a few while the rest languish in poverty.
According to sources close to them, Zanu PF and the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) officials continue to manipulate indigenisation rules to secure financial gain for their private lifestyles – something which comes as no surprise to any of us. A lot of corrupt deals are clearly taking place in Zimbabwe today between Zanu PF/ZDF and private business. All this is done with the help of shady foreign companies and trusted individuals who are given subsidised licenses to exploit Zimbabwe's natural resources – especially minerals –in return for payoffs that go to fund Zanu PF activities and the lavish private lifestyles of senior ZDF officials. We all know that Zanu PF has been rewarding companies and individuals that pay for their members' expensive lifestyles for decades and the pattern is still the same today, with a new set of laws being manipulated in the same old ways, leaving ordinary people who are supposed to be the real beneficiaries languishing in poverty.
'The companies' – Cases of wolves in sheepskins
Wolf Number 1: Renaissance Capital (RenCap). Described in its website as a leading independent investment bank operating in Russia, the CIS, Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and other high-opportunity emerging and frontier markets, RenCap boasts publicly that it has direct access to the Minister of Indigenisation and even more senior Zanu PF officials. The company has even offered to help other companies to get around the rules on indigenisation in the mining sector, which they do by insisting on becoming their local advisor. This "local advisor" role has most often gone to RenCap's Co-CEO for Zimbabwe, Terence Mukupe, who is well connected to the President's office. He avoids damage to RenCap's image by presenting himself as an independent consultant. Rumour has it that Mukupe is also used by Zanu PF to send secret messages back into the mining companies.
RenCap's website also claims that it promotes charitable and philanthropic work in developing countries. A section on the company's website reads: "Just as Renaissance Group is dedicated to its work in emerging and frontier markets, we are committed to the people for whom these territories are home. Our philanthropic and charitable initiatives are driven by a strong commitment to corporate social responsibility, which takes the form of both direct funding and employee volunteer programmes around the world." There is not much evidence of their involvement in sensible charity work but it is well known that they are raking in millions from Zimbabwe's mining industry, twisting indigenisation laws that were intended to bring benefit to ordinary Zimbabweans, and allowing their Co-CEO in Zimbabwe to facilitate deals on behalf of Mugabe and his cronies.
Wolf number 2: Benny Steimetz Group Resources Limited (BSGR). BSGR, based in Guernsey, is also doing deals with Mugabe. Fully owned by the Benny Steimetz Group, an Israeli mining and diamond trading company founded in 1940, the company has joined in the looting of the Zimbabwe Diamond rush. Worse still, I hear they have recently offered large sums of cash in direct support of Mugabe. As far as I'm concerned, this makes them an accessory to Mugabe's acts of brutality against his own people.
Conference 2011, party debt and the begging bowl
Every year we see Zanu PF demanding more of the business community ahead of their annual Conference, which for 2011 begins tomorrow in Bulawayo. Both legitimate and illegitimate businesses find themselves at this time of the year, having to donate to the Zanu PF begging bowl. Some businesses treat it as protection fees as they have seen how many businesses have been lost to Zanu PF under their rule. Building on the land seizures and farm invasions, the indigenous laws are now forcing businesses to surrender their shares, most of the time in a corrupt manner to benefit Zanu PF senior officials.
The man who likes avoiding cameras: Sam Pa
This year the activity is looking identical to what Zanu PF did to raise money in 2010, when meetings were held to brainstorm ways of clearing party debt and to raise money for the conference and it was agreed that the party should work with businessmen including Sam Pa of China Sonangol and tycoon Billy Rautenbach. Zanu PF tried to keep these deals out of the public eye, most likely because of the shady nature of the businessmen involved.
Sam Pa is a controversial figure who uses different names in his dealings around the world – to my eyes a sign of his unwillingness to be accountable. He is known to have powerful links with oppressive regimes ranging from Latin America to Africa, where he seems to have managed to keep most of his activity out of the media. The Economist tells us he runs an "International Syndicate", which he built through his Cold War contacts around the world, and through which he causes massive harm to communities by exploiting countries' resources and propping up oppressive regimes. Known as the China International Fund or China Sonangol, the syndicate's main business in Africa is located in Angola where it is heavily exploiting the oil business. Angola is known to be rich in oil and it's one of the most repressive regimes in Africa. In Zimbabwe, Mr Pa has expanded his business into the Diamonds industry and built links to the Zanu PF inner circle. He almost certainly provided funds and equipment to the Zimbabwe Central Intelligence Organisation to support it in ensuring the 2008 electoral "victory" for Mugabe and Zanu PF. And it seems he's been at this in a number of African countries, where companies he represents have manipulated networks within the elites and negotiated in secret to secure access to strategic minerals.
Billy Rautenbach was sold a portion of the Anglo-American Platinum concession in 2008 for at least US$1m. In return he gave millions of dollars to Constantine Chiwenga, the head of Zimbabwe National
Billy Rautenbach: The man who sells guns to Zimbabwe's enemies,
Army and to Happyton Bonyongwe, the CIO boss. In the late 1990s, Billy's name was on the list of the top 20 criminals in South Africa and he was rumoured to have been involved in drug dealing, gun-running, smuggling, bribery, corruption and bankrolling Robert Mugabe's troops in the Congo war – an impressive list of criminal activities even by Zanu PF standards.
The list of shady individuals that fund Zanu PF activities is long – another two of the associated crooks are John Bredenkamp and Nicholas van Hoostraten.
Bredenkamp is a man with a dark brutal history against the black people of Zimbabwe and Africans. In the days of UDI under Ian Smith, Bredenkamp was the main person tasked by the Smith regime to buy weapons on their behalf. At the time the regime was under international sanctions, making it impossible to purchase military equipment directly. Bredenkamp became useful by helping them to get around the sanctions – supposedly he participated actively because he regarded all black people as his sworn enemies. In 1999 Bredenkemp put his skills to use again, this time on behalf of the black government of Zimbabwe. In response to Mugabe's targeted brutality against his own people the European Union imposed sanctions, and Bredenkamp's skills of getting around sanctions came in handy once again as the Mugabe regime relied on him to purchase its weapons of oppression, using his shady contacts all over the world.
Nicholas van Hoogstraten boasts of being a loan shark for important people in Zimbabwe and is known for his closeness to Robert Mugabe and other Zanu PF officials.
Nicholas van Hoogstraten, the Man who owns Mugabe
The South Africa Mail & Guardian recently reported that in 2006 he showed journalists documents from a US$10m loan to Mugabe, using this to claim that everyone who mattered in Harare was in his pocket. These twisted individuals have become extremely powerful and they are said to be currently involved in major fundraising drives to sponsor Zanu PF, preferring the current status quo in Zimbabwe to the uncertainty of change and the risk that their corrupt behaviour might be exposed.
Personal gain & lack of moral consistency
On the other side of the same deals are the senior Zanu PF and Zimbabwe Defence Forces officials who – as I have said many times in previous posts – are looting their country's resources for personal gain. The fact that individuals like Bredenkamp and van Hoogstraten can get their hands into almost anything they want in Zimbabwe in exchange for the favours they do for key people in Zanu PF exposes the personal greed behind the indigenisation law and other similar processes. Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe's Minister of Defence, for example, has accumulated a large amount of cash from joint ventures with Rautenbach and van Hoogstraten. In fact, his most productive fundraiser for a previous attempt at an internal Zanu PF attempted coup d'état known as the "Dinyane Saga" was an agricultural venture with Billy Rautenbach. With Mnangagwa as the majority shareholder, Rautenbach could guarantee that he would be left untouched.
Not willing to share?
While Zanu PF and Mugabe preach hate against the West and other nations that speak against them, the shocking truth is their willingness to get in bed with former UDI activists who fought against black Zimbabweans in the struggle for independence. By the look of things the party is determined to keep power within the grip of its ageing elite and can offer no explanation for why talented young people are not given the opportunities that they want and deserve. Their own party youth are not allowed to come through and take on leadership roles, as this would jeopardise the old guard's monopoly on suspect business deals that are creating a lot of personal wealth. The existing set up seems to offer no hope for the younger generation. Even the Minister for Youth and Empowerment, Kasukuwere, cannot help redress the balance for fear that it will appear that he is building up his own political power base. His frustrations were expressed in the recent Zimbabwe Wikileaks, where he suggested to the Americans that Mugabe needed to be pushed off the top seat to allow new blood to take over the party and the country's leadership. If Zanu PF is not willing to share with its own members the chances for the ordinary citizen are clearly even worse. Unless and until Zimbabweans fight for a change of government and system, the country will continue empowering a few while the rest languish in poverty.
Source - hararesunset.wordpress.com
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