ON 10 June 2018, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said soon after touring the Nyangani Renewable Energy solar project in Mutoko, Mashonaland East province, that controversial businessman Wicknell Chivayo is a candidate for Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison.
BRENNA MATENDERE
Mnangagwa was talking about Chivayo’s scandals and his botched US$172 848 597.60 (US$173 million) Gwanda solar deal in which he was paid US$5.8 million in advance for virtually doing nothing as the project did not take off.
But now the motor-mouthed buccaneering tenderpreneur says he has captured the President and has a dead man’s grip on him to get anything that he wants.
In a revealing leaked audio (which the tenderpreneur and his paid publicists now falsely claim is a deepfake), Chivayo says Mnangagwa is certainly now under his vice-like grip and control, thus he can get anything from him that he wants.
The NewsHawks got the audio some weeks ago, together with the documents of the corrupt US$40 million Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) tender which has boosted Chivayo’s dirty money, but waited to first confirm their authenticity.
The leaked audio is significant as it confirms a number of key things which The NewsHawks already has, including Mnangagwa’s protection which Chivayo boasts about ad infinitum all over the place.
In the audio, Chivayo gloatingly says “ndakachibata kuti dzvii, kuti dzvii…”, which means he is in full control of the situation, and the US$40 million deal in particular.
Chivayo relates an incident in which he escorted Mnangagwa on the red carpet to his flight when he was flying to Italy for the Italy-Africa Summit in Rome from 28-29 January 2024 which proves he is now deep inside the system.
Chivayo broadly says that he has now captured, not only Mnangagwa, but also the system. The NewsHawks understands what he means as he is not just close to Mnangagwa, but many other influential politicians and high-profile officials.
Chivayo is now using the Zec money to spread his wings to other countries in the region, for instance only last week he was in Uganda to meet President Yoweri Museveni and in Tanzania to engage President Samia Suluhu Hassan hunting for tenders and deals — not investment.
Back to his January story, he says when he got to the airport and the runway, Mnangagwa took him by the hand and said he should escort him to the flight as they talked about deals. In the process, Mnangagwa told Chivayo to do “this and that”, explaining their dodgy deals.
Chivayo says after Mnangagwa had greeted his Vice-Presidents, Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi, on the red carpet, he then said: “I will phone you my son after landing in Italy (as the plane was just about to take off).”
Chivayo says, “I’m now deep inside, so let’s take advantage of it.”
The businessman is close to Mnangagwa and has lines of communication to the Vice-Presidents, which explains his capture of the system narrative. In December 2023, Chivayo supplied a car and some cash to Chiwenga’s wedding.
To his credit, though, Chiwenga refused to indulge Chivayo on an expensive car gift which he wanted to use to capture him.
Chivayo is donating cars to Zanu PF supporters and sympathisers for political reasons and to capture them. He has spent about US$3 million on cars and cash gifts to buy political support and loyalty which he then leverages for Zanu PF and Mnangagwa’s patronage.
Unprincipled Zimbabwean fortune-hunters have got the cars and are now his loyalists. They defend their ill-gotten cars in the name of philanthropy, yet they know only too well it is dirty money, which makes them complicit to corruption.
The context of the audio is that Chivayo was telling his bitter partners Moses Mpofu and Mike Chimombe not to trouble him demanding payments because he had already given then US$100 000 which they should enjoy while he waited for US$5.2 million more which was due to be paid by the government.
Chivayo owes Mpofu and Chimombe US$10 million from the Zec deal. In a more revealing disclosure, Chivayo says there are many other deals in the pipeline which Mnangagwa is going to facilitate, including some with the police and immigration.
He says Mpofu and Chimombe should not be scrambling for his current deal — the corrupt US$40 million Zec tender — while crying to have their school fees paid for them because “that’s nothing” in the broader scheme of things.
He says he is swimming in cash as he, for example, had bought a watch for R2.2 million in South Africa just recently.
As revealed by The NewsHawks a few days ago, Chivhayo, who already has a fleet of upmarket vehicles, recently bought a R3.5 million Mercedes-Maybach S-Class, the ultimate luxury limousine.
Chivayo says he had problems with Mnangagwa previously — which explains the President’s 2018 Mutoko speech in which he threatened to arrest him — but now things are fine and they should grab the opportunity with both hands to make more money instead of fighting each other.
Chivayo preaches how Mpofu and Chimombe should run their budgets, while they think of other creative means to make money, for instance taking advantage of the current drought situation to supply maize to mint cash.
He says it is easy for them to do so because they can easily get advance payments as they are very close to Mnangagwa, who treats them almost like his sons.
He says he has many projects that he is running and has no problem paying Mpofu and Chimombe, say US$50 000 or US$100 000 when necessary, but they should stop making noise. Chivayo says he told Victor Matiyenga of Exquisite Cars in Harare along Tongogara Street,
, who is close to Mnangagwa’s sons, that he should give Mpofu and Chimombe new cars, but they quickly rushed there shouting impatiently and that put him off.
He says that they should wait, instead of making noise. Chivayo reveals that he owed Mpofu and Chimombe US$10 million from the Zec deal, but had paid them US$100 000 initially.
The NewsHawks understands he paid them US$200 000 or US$100 000 each, which is what is infuriating them, given the quantum of the deal. Mpofu and Chimombe have written a letter to South African company Ren-Form executive Angus Carlaw complaining about how Chivayo fraudulently seized the deal and expressing their anger.
Ren-Form signed the Zec deal with Better Brands Security (Pty) owned by Mnangagwa’s other close ally, gold baron Pedzai “Scott” Sakupwanya.
The NewsHawks understands Sakupwanya withdrew from the deal as trouble simmered after a meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, where things were discussed and agreed initially.
In its first exclusive story on this issue, The NewsHawks quotes the letter and later published it on social media as evidence and to show how there is no honour among thieves. Further and more telling, the letter paints the bigger picture: Chivayo says he is now worth 10 times or 20 times more after the general elections last year, courtesy of the Zec tender.
This means the Zec deal was a financial game changer for him. But the problem, he adds, is that his angry partners do not understand that and should wait because the money will gradually come, while they hunt for other tenders.
Chivayo is leveraging proximity to power to make money. Only two weeks ago, he was at Mnangagwa’s Precabe Farm in Sherwood, Kwekwe, Midlands province.
Soon after that, Mnangagwa announced that Chivayo’s IMC Communications, which is based at the same offices as his Intratrek company at No. 53 Samora Machel Avenue, Karigamombe Centre in Harare, had been awarded a licence for Starlink services in Zimbabwe, which is a major rent-seeking opportunity.
As Chivayo says, Mnangagwa is now in his pocket; at his beck and call for him to make money through state and government tenders and contracts, true to his character as a buccaneering tenderpreneur.
