President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s chief secretary Martin Rushwaya has been accused of shielding a senior Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operative from prosecution in the wake of a raging US$6.8 million scandal related to the construction of a building in Harare.
It emerged at the weekend that the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) recently raided several companies that included Access Finance, Alpha Asset Management, Chigama Architectural Services and Project Management (Pvt) Ltd, and Terrestrial Holdings, a CIO company, over the scandal.
The CIO corruption case revolves around US$6.8 million renovation and construction works on a three-storey multi-purpose building owned by CIO company, Terrestrial Holdings, through Aldershot Enterprises (Private) Ltd, located at N0.8 Natal Road, Belgravia, Harare.
Zaac's investigation is primarily focused on directors of Chigama Architectural Services and Project Management (Pvt) Ltd, and Terrestrial Holdings for diverting project funds for self-serving investment, profit and self-enrichment.
Chigama Architectural Services and Project Management, based in Unit 34, N0.6 Chelmsford Road, Belgravia, and 9 Curie Street, Windhoek West, Namibia, is an architectural and project management firm run by a local businessman who shuttles between Harare and the Namibian capital.
Documents say sometime in 2024, Terrestrial was awarded a government contract to renovate and build a three-story building at stand N0.8, Natal Road, Belgravia, Harare, known as 3218 Salisbury Township, which is owned by the Office of the President and Cabinet - a reference to CIO.
In November 2024, Terrestrial approached the National Social Security Authority (Nssa), saying it required a loan of about US$6 780,000, purportedly to be used exclusively for financing the renovation and the construction of the three-storey mixed-use facility.
Terrestrial directors - who work for CIO - knew at the time they did not intend to use the funds for that, but instead intended to divert the cash for investment and profit-making activities.
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Nssa disbursed US$4 500 000 into a Stanbic Bank Zimbabwe foreign currency account number 9140009045936 held by Chigama Architectural and Project Management.
After receipt of the funds, Chigama Architectural and Project Management did not use the money for the intended renovation of the CIO complex.
Linos Mapfumo, who is allegedly related to Rushwaya, has emerged as a central figure in the scandal.
Mapfumo is accused of siphoning funds and inflating invoices related to the project.
Sources claimed that after the scandal exploded the senior operative was given “soft landing” in a different branch of the spy organisation.
He is allegedly being posted to Zimbabwe’s embassy in France to escape the investigations by Zacc.
“Shielding Linos Mapfumo from all these investigations is Dr Martin Rushwaya, the powerful chief secretary to the President and Cabinet, the top civil servant,” claimed a source.
“It is alleged that Dr Martin Rushwaya has been for a long time, the source of Mapfumo's "untouchable" status in the CIO and other state institutions like the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and its subsidiary Chemplex Corporation, where he has been imposed as a director and chairman by Dr Martin Rushwaya and then CIO DG Isaac Moyo.
“At Chemplex Corporation, he has single handedly destroyed the once promising revival of Chemplex ability to produce fertiliser for the country through its subsidiaries due to his massive corrupt tendencies and gross incompetence and despite all this, he continues to be protected.
Rushwaya has also been accused of protecting controversial tenderpreneur Wicknell Chivayo, who was linked to a US$42 million Zimbabwe Election Commission scandal in 2023.
Moyo is said to have approved the US$6.8 million construction project in late 2024.
