𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗞𝗡𝗢𝗫’𝗦 𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗘𝗚𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦 𝗔𝗚𝗔𝗜𝗡𝗦𝗧 𝗧𝗔𝗚𝗪𝗜𝗥𝗘𝗜 𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗘?

𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗞𝗡𝗢𝗫’𝗦 𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗘𝗚𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦 𝗔𝗚𝗔𝗜𝗡𝗦𝗧 𝗧𝗔𝗚𝗪𝗥𝗘𝗜 𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗘?

I have been the biggest defender of Kuda Tagwirei ever since I met him and heard his side of the story in January 2022. I have even punted him as a suitable candidate for President, however yesterday, after listening to Knox, I have to say I had to reflect, because some of the allegations made make sense.

1.⁠ ⁠In January 2022, Tagwirei flew me to Harare for a meeting. We had a three-hour meeting in which he told me about himself—how he was busting sanctions, how he made his money in fuel, and how he reinvested the returns into rescuing government owned mines and banks affected by sanctions.

In his account, he refuted the allegations made against him by Acie Lumumba and the preceding reports by Sentry, Africa Risk Consulting, and Citizen Maverick. He then paid me a retainer to write a PR proposal for him and articles setting the record straight. However, he asked me:

(i) Not to write about the fact that he owned Akribos Capital, which holds shares in CBZ Holdings, Intermarket, ZB Bank, and Dokuma which is digitizing our title deeds.

(ii) Not to write about his mining, construction, and contracting interests.

(iii) That same day, he took me to a meeting with the President.

2.⁠ ⁠Soon after, I had a meeting with then-MP Temba Mliswa in Johannesburg, where I asked him what he knew about Kuda from the Parliamentary inquiries.

3.⁠ ⁠In response, Temba told me that Kuda was a criminal and that CIO Director-General, Isaac Moyo, had prepared a docket on him, which had been handed to the ZRP for them to arrest Kuda on corruption charges.

4.⁠ ⁠He [Temba] then said that he had informed the President about the docket, and the President requested it from the ZRP and shortly thereafter issued an instruction for the ZRP and Moyo not to proceed against Kuda. This corroborates Knox’s claim on this issue.

5.⁠ ⁠In March 2022, after my organisation Zimbabwe Anti Sanctions Movement (ZASM) launched a court case against Biden, OFAC, and South African banks in the Gauteng High Court, the South African Banking Association filed a responding affidavit outlining that corruption and money launder were their reason for implementing sanctions on Tagwirei and Sakunda.

6.⁠ ⁠They stated in their affidavit that, because of the serious allegations made by the U.S. OFAC against Kuda—which Kuda did not refute—they were obliged to insulate the South African financial system from proceeds of corruption or risk penalties, criminal prosecution, and potential removal from the global financial system for facilitating money laundering.

7.⁠ ⁠As you can imagine, I was upset that my client and “Zimbabwe’s biggest sanctionsbuster” was being accused of what I believed were false allegations by “white monopoly capital” to destroy a black entrepreneur.

8.⁠ ⁠I sent the affidavit to Kuda, and he promised to depose a responding affidavit rebutting the allegations.

9.⁠ ⁠For almost one and a half years, we struggled to obtain this responding affidavit from Kuda, until we were pressured by the courts to submit our responses or risk losing the case.

10.⁠ ⁠Our lawyers then drafted an affidavit, which I sent to Kuda for approval on the 13th of August 2023.

11.⁠ ⁠On the 14th of August 2023, Mr Chitambo, Sakunda’s CFO, and I had a telephonic conversation in which he stated that Sakunda did business with the government, so they needed security clearance as submitting such an affidavit to a foreign court could inadvertently disclose classified information. He then concluded by saying he would get back to me once they had clearance.

12.⁠ ⁠From August 2023 until sanctions were removed in March 2024, Sakunda continued to promise to return the signed affidavit rebutting the allegations made by OFAC and South African banks, but never did.

So, after listening to Knox’s allegations about how Kuda allegedly stole government assets, I am left wondering why Sakunda was unwilling to depose affidavits to prove their innocence.

More in my book which I will release soon.

By Rutendo Matinyarare, Chairman of ZASM.