HARARE – Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) leader Nelson Chamisa has refused to be stampeded into the “Gold Mafia” mess following talk the opposition chief and lawyer once defended one of the culprits and has kept curious silence over the horrifying scandal.
He was speaking in an interview with a local publication.
Gold Mafia is the screaming title of a recent Al Jazeera documentary by undercover journalists who craftily extracted information about gold smuggling and money laundering modus operandi by political elites and their cronies.
Zimbabwe ambassador at large and preacher Uebert Angel, Zimbabwe Miners Federation boss Henrietta Rushwaya, the first family, gold dealer Ewan MacMillan, and business tycoon Simon Rudland feature in the documentary.
Chamisa was recently named by presidential spokesperson George Charamba as one of Rutland’s lawyers, prompting speculation his silence was due to his alleged association with the businessman.
The opposition leader argued his critics were barking up the wrong tree, insisting the buck stops with President Emmerson Mnangagwa as national leader.
“I am not Emmerson (Mnangagwa). I am Nelson; Mnangagwa is the one who is presiding over this nation and therefore fingers have to point at him because he has the responsibility and the accountability,” Chamisa said.
“He (Mnangagwa) is the one who presides over the Reserve Bank, he is the one who has been entrusted, of course illegitimately, with the stewardship of our national resources, the silverware of the family.
“I’m there as the alternative and what has been proven by this Al Jazeera report is what we have always known, that indeed the problem is corruption.”
Chamisa also played down claims he has elected to keep his silence over a scandal that has gripped global attention and further discussed in the British House of Lords.
“My tongue is not tied. Secondly, I have no relationship with any of those actors in the gold mafia,” Chamisa said while dismissing claims he represented Rudland.
“The presidential spokesperson doesn’t know how lawyers function, particularly advocates.
“In any event, I was not the one who was responsible in that matter; that was an advocate Thabani Mpofu matter and as far as I know advocate Mpofu is one of the finest advocates in the country.
“And he acts for his clients, and I am not accountable for that. I did my privileges in advocacy chambers.
“So, I would work with advocate Mpofu not as the plea or principal advocate but assisting under the privilege, so it was in the context that we acted in the matter not as my client.”
