A new leaked audio of a quarrel between controversial tycoon Wicknell Chivayo and Mike Chimombe, who were business associates before they bitterly fell out over the corrupt US$100 million Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) tender scandal, further clarifies how they clashed soon after the money started flowing in around March.
The deal was signed in February 2023 ahead of the August general elections.
Payments started coming in March, and this triggered the fights.
The main component of the shady money-spinning tender exposed by The NewsHawks was US$40 million, but in total the deal was more than US$100 million.
Chivayo, Chimombe and Moses Mpofu were agents in the deal between Zec and South African printing company Ren-Form.
The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) is currently investigating the trio on charges of fraud and money laundering, although the political system is now protecting Chivayo, who is close to President Emmerson Mnangagwa and all key players in the deal.
Chimombe and Mpofu are in jail over fraud charges emanating from the dodgy US$88 million Presidential Goats Scheme.
The Zacc probe was launched after another revealing audio surfaced, in which Chivayo says he has captured President Emmerson Mnangagwa and boasted about his proximity to the President, while disclosing who was paid in the process, including Zec chair Priscilla Chigumba, Central Intelligence Organisation Director-General Isaac Moyo, gold baron Pedzisayi “Scott” Sakupwanya, Chimombe, Mpofu and himself.
There are other officials who were paid who are yet to be exposed. The NewsHawks is investigating that and many other aspects in the dark corners.
