Gold Mafia: Charamba threats uncalled for

Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa’s reassurance that threats to get journalists jailed for reporting on the exposure by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit of massive money laundering and smuggling in Zimbabwe are not to be taken seriously, provides the much-needed lift to the spirit.

Going by the pseudonym “Tinoedza Zvimwe”, George Charamba the deputy chief secretary to the president had, in what turned out a personal and overzealous stance, threatened to send journalists to Chikurubi Maximum Prison if they dared repeat the damning allegations put into the open by the Quatar-based news channel.

Instead of seeking to throw his weight around and illegally threatening journalists, Charamba should have just expressed his personal opinion plainly and maybe indicate intent to sue Al Jazeera. Issueing a blanket threat on media freedom, in impersonated authority, puts the government that he wishes to defend in a worse position.

Charamba’s line of defence is akin to that of Uebert Mudzanire, aka Prophet Uebert Angel who sought to have people believe that the money laundering and gold smuggling was a good thing for Zimbabwe as it brought in money that sanctions blocked out. He implied in his defence of this criminal activity that the government authorised everything and nobody should complain since it was government money and government gold.

The short sight of the prophet’s lame assertion is seen in the failure by him and those that applaud him to ask that, if all the movement of gold and money was “above board”, why was there need to smuggle them through the airport which is controlled by the government? Who are they hiding this movement of sanction busters from at the airport?

The prophet and the sanction busting gang are failing to explain why a straightforward government activity would require to involve questionable characters, some of whom have been seen bragging with dozens of gold bars and millions of dollars in hard cash in their bedrooms — supposedly money that we are meant to believe is destined for the national treasury.

According to the Al Jazeera report, the government of Zimbabwe is using smuggling gangs to sell gold worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

“The smuggling feeds into an enormous moneylaundering operation, all facilitated by Fidelity Gold Refinery, a subsidiary of Zimbabwe’s central bank, and enabled, in some cases, directly by senior government officials and relatives of the country’s president, Emmerson Mnangagwa,” the investigation claims.

These are some of the questions and findings from the Al Jazeera investigation that Charamba seeks to stop the media from asking, or repeating, threatening them with jail. Thankfully the government’s Information minister came in to restore sanity.

We expect government officials to exercise restraint when going about their business and especially to avoid abusing their stations and causing needless panic and confusion. The boastfully loud threats by Charamba were as uncalled for as they were unprofessional.