Mugabe sacrifices Masimirembwa

via Mugabe sacrifices Masimirembwa – DailyNews Live by Chengetai Zvauya 18 SEPTEMBER 2013

HARARE – President Robert Mugabe yesterday claimed Goodwills Masimirembwa, the former Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) chairman, tried to extort $6 million from Ghanaian investors.

Masimirembwa yesterday denied the allegations saying he is ready to explain to Mugabe the true facts of the matter.

Mugabe told a luncheon for lawmakers held at a Harare hotel, that the losing Zanu PF aspiring legislator for Mabvuku constituency, asked a Ghanaian mining firm with interest in gold production for a bribe to facilitate a joint venture deal.

Mugabe did not state when all this happened.

The 89-year-old Zanu PF leader, who has just been re-elected for a seventh five-year term is on an anti-corruption platform and indigenisation drive, claimed Masimirembwa threatened the Ghanaians with arrest if they ever set their foot in the country after reportedly spurning the lawyer-cum-politician’s demand.

The veteran leader said the Ghanaian investors approached his office for assistance, resulting in the disclosure of the alleged corruption.

Mugabe has a soft spot for Ghanaians, having completed his economics degree in Ghana in 1958, and also taught at St. Mary’s Teacher Training College, where he met his first wife, Sarah Heyfron, whom he would marry in 1961.

The former guerilla leader uncharacteristically railed against the ex-ZMDC boss, insisting he tried to extort cash from the Ghananians

“Masimirembwa, you got $6 million as bribe money from Ghanaian businesspeople and it is this we do not like and we do not want people who are corrupt,” Mugabe said in unusually direct remarks.

The Zanu PF leader said he will not allow the case to rest, hinting that there could be an imminent arrest.

Contacted by the Daily News, Masimimirembwa said: “I respect President Mugabe, he was speaking about what he was informed by his advisors but it seems the real people who were involved with this issue are the ones who misled him.

“When called upon to defend myself, I will do so and will reveal who was involved and how. I am clean on this matter am ready to explain to the nation and the President and I have the facts.”