THE Al Jazeera documentary that exposed syndicates that are behind massive gold smuggling and money laundering in Zimbabwe has aroused interest in the Southern African Development Community (Sadc), with a government official from Eswatini leaping to the defence of one of the alleged kingpins.
In the documentary titled Gold Mafia, Zimbabwe featured prominently after President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s ambassador-at-large Uebert Angel, born Uebert Mudzanire, was secretly recorded offering to help undercover Al Jazeera journalists to launder US$1,2 billion in dirty money.
Al Jazeera journalists had introduced themselves to Angel as part of Chinese criminals that wanted to clean dirty money through gold smuggling.
The documentary also touched on the smuggling of Zimbabwean cigarettes into South Africa and money laundering.
In a video that has gone viral on social media, Eswatini government spokesperson Alphaeous Nxumalo described the exposé as a personal vendetta against Angel.
Nxumalo claimed there was a plot to smear Mnangagwa’s name and scuttle Zimbabwe’s investment deals.
“Of utmost interest and importance in the story that has been developing on Al Jazeera, the journalists behind this story are breaking all norms that govern journalistic ethics,” he claimed.
“They lack understanding that diplomacy is a very difficult job to do, which is to navigate around the international system to ensure that the countries they represent get the best in the form of international investors.
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“When you look at the documentary it is personal to ambassador Uebert Angel.
“The documentary is a damp squib, which focuses on someone who is not even a civil servant.
“Ambassador Angel is allowed to do business and to partner with international observers as they are willingly engaging him within the interest of the people of Zimbabwe.”
He accused the Al Jazeera journalists of trying to jeopardise the investment and engagement efforts since it failed to show Angel holding the gold.
Apparently, Nxumalo leapt to the defence of the Gold Mafia ahead of his boss, King Mswati III’s arrival in Zimbabwe tomorrow for an official State visit, which begins on Thursday.
Before starting his two-day State visit, he will join three other regional leaders — Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Lazarus Chakwera of Malawi and Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia — in Victoria Falls for the Transform Africa Summit, which begins on Wednesday.
Mswati is billed to officially open the 63rd edition of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) in Bulawayo on Friday.
On Thursday, he will hold formal talks in Harare with Mnangagwa before attending a State banquet in his honour later that evening.
Zambia’s former Foreign Affairs minister Harry Kalaba also made another recording where he said there was nothing amiss with what Angel was doing as diplomats could do “anything” to woo investors.
Kalaba resigned as Foreign Affairs minister under former President Edgar Lungu’s leadership citing rampant corruption in the Zambian government.
“For me, that does not amount to much. Diplomats go beyond the call of duty to convince investors, but they have the ear of the principal who is the President,” Kalaba said.
“They have the right to convince you to go into their country and remember we are competing for the same investors, so they have to use their ingenuity to make sure that they attract the investors in their country.
“So there is nothing amiss with what happened behind the scenes.
“Diplomats do all kinds of things to convince investors to go into their jurisdiction.
“For Zimbabwe, we have to understand it from the perspective of the sanctions that the country is going through.
“So, President Mnangagwa has to be encouraged instead of being vilified.”
Sadc spokesperson Barbra Lopi Tax could not comment saying she had not watched the documentary.
“I have not watched the documentary and I am actually off duty today,” Tax said.
Local analysts, however, scoffed at Nxumalo and Kalaba’s attempts to dismiss the revelations by Al Jazeera.
“It’s strange why officials in Zambia and Eswatini, countries which are not implicated in the documentary, would speak on the matter,”
Centre for Natural Resource Governance executive director Farai Maguwu said: “The comments simply reveal the endemic corruption in Africa.
“For those officials to unashamedly defend people who were not speaking under duress left more questions than answers.
“In analysing the Al Jazeera documentary, we are looking at transnational operations, hence such a quick move to issue out unsolicited views can force someone to think that the individual could be implicated somehow.”
Political analyst Rejoice Ngwenya said in Africa, governments tend to depend on diplomacy for their status quo.
“At the airport, for instance, diplomats are not searched to protect their shenanigans,” Ngwenya said.
“There is no basis to defend corruption and a crime unless you are corrupt or a criminal yourself. It shows the naivety of the diplomatic framework in Africa,”
“These foreign diplomats do not care about the impact of some issues on the local community. It’s a shame.
“That is why institutions like Sadc, and Comesa [Common Markets for Eastern and Southern Africa] are moribund. They have not done much to address the concerns of the locals.”
Government last month said it was taking the allegations raised in the documentary seriously and vowed to arrest everyone who was implicated.
Angel, through his lawyer Lovemore Madhuku, claimed that he did nothing wrong as he was taking part in an intelligence operation.
