GOLD MAFIA: The buck stops with Mnangagwa, he must explain himself – says Mliswa; outspoken legislator calls for dismissal of CIO bosses 

By Staff Reporter

OUTSPOKEN Member of Parliament (MP) Temba Mliswa has demanded that President Emmerson Mnangagwa explain himself in the aftermath of Al Jazeera’s Gold Mafia exposé.

Mnangagwa is yet to comment on the matter despite it having fingered his wife Auxillia, son, Special Envoy Uebert Angel and high-ranking officials at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) and government mint.

Mliswa, who was speaking on online platform In Conversation with Trevor Ncube, said the investigation by Al Jazeera heavily exposed the First Family at a time when Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operatives were expected to be on watch.

The investigation revealed that hundreds of millions are being lost to shadowy businessmen using the country’s institutions to clean dirty money while siphoning gold to Dubai, Hong Kong and other safe havens.

“The expose shook the First Family. What shocked me the most was CIO, where was the CIO? It shocked me how some of the individuals were accommodated, given the trust to do as they want cart blanche,” said Mliswa.

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“The buck stops with the President, he is the CEO of the country, the number one citizen. We are not dealing with Mnangagwa but the President of our Republic.

“His office is about informing people. I have asked this in Parliament; why are we not inviting him to Parliament? No one wants to do it.

“It is about the people around him who are not capable of giving him the right advise. At a time like this he was supposed to be the first to speak and say I have appointed an inquiry.

“Most of these people (fingered in Al Jazeera’s Gold Mafia investigation) saw an opportunity and seized it. The question is leadership, these (people) have no problem, they are making their money.

“Why did you then have this happening? The President has got to respond to this issue. When Charamba is responding he is not even doing a good job of it.

“Comments by Charamba did not get any following. Permanent Secretary Nick Mangwana’s too. Their comments exposed that government was in a panic mode.”

Mliswa said the fact that Al Jazeera’s investigative team had managed to record operations at Robert Mugabe International Airport for months, and failed to vet those getting close to Mnangagwa was enough reason to fire heads of the CIO which he said had become a national security threat.

He added: “The CIO has become a national security threat because it cannot even protect the President. With the way the late former President used to function, he had institutions that used to work for him, not against him.

“Heads must roll, the Director General (DG) Isaac Moyo must go, the Directors must go. If I was President, I would immediately do that.

“That is why the army is relevant, it has become the last line of defence. We have militarised our state, we have invited them to the party.”