‘Explosive Al Jazeera documentary on Zimbabwe's illicit gold trade causing headaches for government’ 6 March 2023

A hyped but yet-to-be-screened Al Jazeera investigation into the illicit gold trade and corruption linking powerful elites and politicians in Zimbabwe has sparked a public relations disaster in government and ruling party circles. This has forced Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya to spring up and clarify that targeted sanctions on the country do not affect its international trade. Therefore, criminal enterprises claiming to be sanction-bursting were using backdoor tactics for selfish gains. "There are no sanctions on Zimbabwean exports and imports, including trade in gold, to warrant Zimbabwe circumventing international sanctions through illicit trade in gold," the governor said in a statement.

…"Criminal networks turn dirty cash into gold, which is sold around the world. The investigation leads to the highest offices of state in southern Africa," the Al Jazeera teaser said. "Stanley", a Chinese criminal with connections to the Triads network, served as the team's leader. Members of competing gold mafia gangs were befriended by undercover reporters. Snippets of the documentary shown to a select group of journalists in Zimbabwe revealed government officials and diplomats in a private meeting with Kamlesh Pattni, once implicated in the Goldenberg scandal that syphoned about R10.8 billion from Kenya in the 1990s but was acquitted in 2013.

…With the country's central clearing house, the RBZ implicated as "Southern Africa's laundromat" by those offering the "mafia" they could "wash" their money, Mangudya has threatened to sue the interviewees and those he accused of being "purveyors of fake news"…With the Al Jazeera documentary casting a shadow on the country’s reserve bank, which heavily relies on public confidence, Mangudya said he was determined to protect "its (bank) fiduciary responsibilities in the national interest"…According to the Economic Development in Africa Report 2020 by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Africa loses about R5.59 trillion, 3.7% of its gross domestic product (GDP), annually in illicit financial flows.