Planes and cars, fuel, airports, roads and railways, land, farms and housing, grain, agricultural inputs and machinery, steel, timber, gold, diamonds, refuse trucks, electricity, cancer machines and Covid-19 masks … the list goes on and on of the corruption scandals that have brought shame upon shame to Zimbabwe in the past 45 years.
Corruption is now Zimbabwe’s middle name. This column is about the story of two men, one government tender and 93 711 missing goats.
Read:
Reaping what Zimbabwe’s government sowed
Whispers on the streets
The beauty and shame of Zimbabwe
It all began back in 2021, when two businessmen entered into a US$88 million contract [around R1.4 billion at today’s exchange rate] with the Ministry of Lands and Agriculture to supply and deliver 632 000 goats over a period of five years.
The goats were for the Presidential Goat Project, which was part of a Rural Development Initiative aiming to distribute 632 000 goats across the country to benefit orphans, child-headed families, the elderly, the disabled and chronically ill people.
Operating through a company called Blackdeck, the two men were given advance payments totalling $7.7 million to start sourcing and distributing the goats.
The men delivered 4 208 goats, and the remaining $7 381 000 of the advance money disappeared. There has been no sign of the other 93 711 goats.
The contract was later cancelled for non-delivery, but by then other scandals and whispers surrounding the two businessmen swirled, big names were dropped, and more dirt was dug up.
And for a while the goats story got lost in the quagmire.
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Pleading for leniency
When the issue finally got to court, the two businessmen – Moses Mpofu and Mike Chimombe – were in the dock and all eyes were on them and all attention on the missing goats.
Prosecutor Whisper Mabhaudhi said: “This offence shocks the conscience. They stole from the poorest of the poor.”
The prosecutor said Mpofu had never accounted for the missing $7.7 million but talked about how he had upgraded roads, a dam, and his farm.
The prosecutor said there was “never any genuine remorse”.
Mpofu admitted the offence was serious but said: “It hurts me because I did not do it. It was Blackdeck [his company].”
He said he didn’t personally have the money to make restitution and that his $1.5 million house in Borrowdale is in a family trust.
He said he has nine children, eight of whom are still in school.
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Critical minerals or a loaf of bread
Zimbabwe’s untouchables: A signature, a bribe and a blind eye
Chimombe’s lawyer said his client was a “rags to riches” businessman and that he was ready to make restitution.
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He said Chimombe owns two properties, a house in Borrowdale worth $800 000 and another in Chinhoyi worth $120 000, and vehicles worth $200 000.
Pleading for leniency, Chimombe said he has three wives and 15 minor children.
Prison sentences
Mpofu (50) and Chimombe (44) were last week sentenced to 22 and 17 years respectively, with portions of their sentences suspended on condition that they pay restitution.
On sentencing, the judge said: “This crime was not only a theft of public funds, it was a theft of hope for the poorest members of our society.”
The conviction and now incarceration of Zimbabwe’s infamous goat fraudsters has surprised us.
Many before them have got away with much, much more than US$7 million, but in this case, in the end it was more about the swirling whispers and the people behind them than the goats.
© Cathy Buckle
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