Self exiled former Foreign Affairs minister Walter Mzembi has told President Emmerson Mnangagwa to relieve controversial preacher Prophet Uebert Angel of his Ambassadorial post saying he is now a national liability.
This follows the release of the first episode of the Al Jazeera documentary titled Gold Mafia which implicated Angel for his role in facilitating illicit smuggling of gold out of the country to Dubai.
Posting on Twitter, Mzembi pleaded with Mnangagwa saying relieving Angel of his post would be good for the country.
“Dear President Mnangagwa I know Murambwi at your age its difficult to let go certain favourite grandchildren who would have conned you into office but please for the sake of Zimbabwe let go your Ambassador at Large. He is now a national liability,” said Mzembi.
Angel, appointed ambassador-at-large and a presidential envoy by Mnangagwa in March 2021, told Al Jazeera undercover reporters who posed as investors that he would be able to carry large volumes of dirty cash into the country using his diplomatic status.
The controversial preacher said he would facilitate a scheme through which unaccounted cash could be exchanged for Zimbabwe’s gold. Recipients of the gold could then sell the precious metal for legitimate money, effectively turning their cash clean.
Angel and his business partner Rikki Doolan also claimed that their laundering operations had the approval of Mnangagwa, who has been in power since November 2017, when Zimbabwe’s controversial former leader Robert Mugabe was ousted in a military coup.
“You want gold, gold we can do it right now, we can make the call right now, and it’s done,” Angel told Al Jazeera’s reporters. “It will land in Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe can’t touch it too until I get to my house. So, there can be a diplomatic plan.”
“So, it is a very, very easy thing,” he said.
Meanwhile, Angel has since issued a statement refuting the allegations in the Al Jazeera documentary claiming that he noticed that he was not dealing with investors and started playing along.
He further claimed that he made several calls to decoys who purported to be Henrietta Rushwaya, Auxilia Mnangagwa and the President Mnangagwa’s son.
Al Jazeera will release Episode 2 of the Gold Mafia documentary this Thursday with more names likely to be implicated in the whole gold smuggling syndicate.
