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By
Staff Reporter
ZIMBABWEAN
business mogul Mutumwa Mawere is a free man after a South African magistrate
dismissed an application by Zimbabwean police for more time to investigate
corruption allegations against him while he was on bail, facing possible
extradition.
Zimbabwean police went before a Randsburg magistrate on Wednesday to request more time and to have Mawere's extradition hearing postponed.
The magistrate declined to postpone the extradition hearing and ordered that Mawere be given back his Zimbabwean and South African passports together with R50 000 bail.
Zimbabwean investigators who were represented in court by lawyer Paul Schutte had asked for one more month to complete their probe into claims that Mawere prejudiced the government of billions of dollars through irregular sales of asbestos and externalisation of foreign currency.
It is understood that Zimbabwean authorities want Mawere extradited to answer charges of under-invoicing of asbestos exports through his company, Southern Asbestos Sales in Johannesburg. This was after the Zimbabwean government exempted asbestos from having to be sold through the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe.
Mawere recently slammed Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono for "displaying venom" in his duties. He blames Gono for leading the anti-graft crusade which has seen top government officials and leading businessmen arrested on corruption charges.
Mawere said Gono was pursuing individuals and companies on trumped-up charges and in the process destroying the foundation of indigenous businesses as well as the economy at large.
"It is unfortunate and regrettable that Zimbabwe has sunk so low. For someone like me who has done so much for Zimbabwe to be accused on the basis of trumped-up charges shows that something has gone terribly wrong somewhere," Mawere said.
"Whose interests are being served by this crusade is not clear. What is clear though is that it is destroying the foundations of black business in Zimbabwe and replacing them with a RBZ governor who wants to be chief executive of Zimbabwe Inc."
Mawere said it was "appalling" to see a country engaged in an act of self-destruction "with Gono exerting more energy in hounding individuals - as if he was a police commissioner - than working on economic recovery.
"Sound economic policies can never be substituted with a display of venom and arresting individuals. People can try that but they will fail in ensuring economic recovery," he said.
"If Zimbabweans spend more time reasoning together on issues than throwing each other into cells it would be better for all of us. RBZ governors in history have been known to focus on core issues than spending time arresting people."
Mawere said the allegations against him were largely baseless while some were actually lies.
Mawere has rejected the allegations of externalisation, saying he was not a Zimbabwean resident and did not sit on his companies' boards.
Mawere, one of Zimbabwe's richest businessmen, gained prominence in the mid-1990s after he bought the country's largest asbestos mining conglomerate, Shabani/Mashava Mines, which is part of the huge Africa Resources Ltd, with a sovereign guarantee
Mawere's business empire which has tentacles in almost all important sectors of the economy includes Africa Associated Mines. He also has confirmed interests in eight listed companies, General Beltings, Steelnet, Turnall, Fidelity Life, Zimre, Nicoz Diamond, CFI Holdings and First Bank. His firm Ukubambana/Kubatana Investments (UKI) also has large stakes in other listed companies.
In 1996, Mawere - who had previously worked for the International Finance Corporation, an arm of the World Bank - teamed up with the ruling party to start one of Zimbabwe's major banks, the First Banking Corporation.
He recently paid more than R7-million to acquire a 60 percent stake in the plush Kilimanjaro nightclub in Johannesburg.
Until recently,
Mawere was considered President Mugabe's closest business crony. He
is also a blue-eyed boy of Zimbabwe's Speaker of Parliament Emmerson
Mnangagwa whose influence has waned in recent weeks after Zanu PF instituted
a probe into it's own companies which have been under Mnangagwa's management.
Additional reporting Dumisani Muleya
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