BRENNA MATENDERE
SCANDAL-RIDDEN tenderpreneur Wicknell Chivayo’s estranged business partners, Mike Chimombe and Moses Mpofu, say their flamboyant colleague is splurging money on cars and cash gifts from corruption proceeds of the US$40 million Zimbabwe Electoral Commission tender.
Chivayo has spent US$3 million on cars and cash gifts.
In a letter, dated 24 April 2024, complaining to Ren-Form’s executive Angus Carlaw about Chivayo’s refusal to pay them and how he had fraudulently changed the contract to mainly “eat” alone, Chimombe and Mpofu said:
“This money has driven him crazy and that’s why, if you check his social media, he is on a buying spree of cars, donating to different individuals across the country, yet he is failing to pay us what we agreed.”
After buying two cars in one week, Chivayo wrote on social media on 18 September 2023:
“Last week on Tuesday after buying my SA pool car, the black MAYBACH GLS600, I came back to Harare on Thursday with some little change left and as a sign of loyalty to the brand I decided to buy yet another MAYBACH S580 @exquisitecars.”
“I had carefully gone through and also asked my lawyer Adv Lewis Uriri who confirmed there was no law which restricted a citizen from owning 3 MAYBACH vehicles. Since the car was reasonably priced at just 400 thousand dollars, I didn’t have much of a choice so I had to buy it.
Please forgive me but I have every reason to celebrate without any fear and spoil myself because the political party and presidential candidate I voted for in recent elections win [sic] resoundingly. This means 5 more years of GOOD LIFE.”
When the money was paid after elections in August last year, Chivayo bought two Maybachs (German luxury car brand owned by and a part of Mercedes-Benz AG) in one week. He bought one in Johannesburg, South Africa, for R3.5 million and another in Harare for US$400 000 which he described as “little change”.
This means he now owns three Maybachs, something unusual in Zimbabwe and elsewhere, as part of a big fleet of luxury cars.
Chivayo leads a champagne lifestyle in a sea of poverty.
He has since spent US$3 million on cars and cash donations mainly to Zanu PF supporters and sympathisers.
While some beneficiaries of the cars are enjoying driving the vehicles funded with corrupt money without compunction, some are now regretting it.
Chivayo says he was celebrating President’s Emmerson Mnangagwa’s disputed victory, which he noted guaranteed him “good life” for another five years.
In a revelation which has shocked the nation, Chivayo says Mnangagwa is firmly under his control and he can get anything he wants from him.
The tenderpreneur’s business model is to secure tenders from the government through the patronage system. In one of the leaked audios, Chivayo sensationally bragged he was able to secure more government tenders as a result of his close proximity to President Mnangagwa and the government.
