Opposition politicians and civil society groups have reacted to the Al Jazeera documentary that revealed llicit gold trade and corruption linking powerful elites and politicians in Zimbabwe.
The documentary, aired on Al Jazeera on Thursday evening exposes how powerful persons including cleric Uebert Angel, Ewan McMillan and Simon Rudland masterminded a gold mafia that siphoned tonnes of the precious mineral out of the country to Dubai.
Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) leader Nelson Chamisa said the Al Jazeera documentary exposes how corrupt, rotten and broken Zimbabwe leadership is.
“THE FISH ROTS FROM THE HEAD The #Aljazeeradocumentary exposes the extent of the rot at the top, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg. This clearly shows how corrupt, rotten & broken leadership has destroyed a jewel and great country. Zimbabwe is not poor, it’s just poorly governed,” said Chamisa.
Transform Zimbabwe leader Jacob Ngarivhume accused the Mnangagwa administration of targeting opposition supporters and consolidating power through changing the constitution at the expense of addressing rampant smuggling of gold out of the country.
“When you know that US1bn worth of gold is being smuggled out of the country, your focus can’t be harassing opposition parties and changing the constitution. You would focus all your resources on this issue,” said Ngarivhume.
Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) said they were concerned that people with power were using their access to bleed the country of its mineral wealth.
“The union notes with great concern the grave and dirty acts of corruption being done by affiliates of the regime . People with access to power are using their access to bleed this country of its mineral wealth. We are basically hit by the crisis of plenty or what we call the resource curse,” ARTUZ said.
