Gold rush at Sam Levy’s mansion

via Gold rush at Sam Levy’s mansion – NewsDay Zimbabwe August 29, 2015

SPIRIT mediums from President Robert Mugabe’s Gushungo clan have invaded two adjacent farmhouses at the late business tycoon Sam Levy’s Lilfordia Farm in Zvimba, claiming the properties were linked by an “underground tunnel” loaded with gold nuggets, which could turn around the country’s economic fortunes.

By Everson Mushava

Lilfordia Farm was formerly owned by late business tycoon Sam Levy, whose business enterprises also comprise the posh Sam Levy’s Village in the leafy Borrowdale suburb, in Harare.

Levy died aged 82 in June 2012 after a long battle with an undisclosed ailment.

At the farm, Levy had built a mansion on a hilltop and another one at the foot of the hill about 400 metres away where the spirit mediums have mobilised people to dig underneath in search for the tunnel in the hope of getting across the hidden gold.

According to Gushungo clan members, the spirit mediums, Chatunga (Collin Chikambi) and Beperere (George Chikaka), claimed their ancestral spirits had disclosed that there was a golden treasure hidden in a tunnel adjoining the two farmhouses — one at the hilltop and another at the foot of the hill.

Although the matter has a striking similarity to the infamous 2007 “diesel n’anga incident” where government ministers made a beeline to secluded Maningwa Hills in Chinhoyi after they were misled by traditional healer Rotina Mavhunga, also known as Nomatter Tagarira, into believing diesel oozing out of a “rock” was a panacea to the country’s biting fuel crisis, the Gushungo clan were reportedly adamant their gold frenzy was genuine.

On Tuesday this week, NewsDay visited Lilfordia Farm near Harare and found eight men digging up an eight-metre tunnel in one of Levy’s rooms while another four-metre tunnel had already been dug in another room.

The team was being led by Chatunga and Beperere.

Cloths of various colours, normally associated with traditional rituals, were hung on the doors of the farmhouse.
The men who only identified themselves as Gushungos refused to give details of their mission, while traditional leaders in the area also professed ignorance over the matter.

“Even if we tell you, you will not understand what we are doing. We are performing a ritual,” one of the family members said before referring all questions to their team leader, Chatunga.

Chatunga simply said they were conducting rituals.

“We have advised everyone. Even (Police Commissioner-General Augustine) Chihuri knows this,” Chatunga said before he became evasive on why they were opening shafts in the farmhouse.

But police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba, said she was not aware of the development.
“We don’t know anything about it,” Charamba said.

Some members of the clan told NewsDay Chatunga had bragged that he would soon get a mining licence “to mine gold at Lilfordia Farm” from Mines minister Walter Chidakwa, who is also reportedly a member of the Gushungo clan.

Repeated efforts to get comment Chidakwa were fruitless this week as he was not picking calls.

However, Chief Zvimba, Stanley Mhondoro, said he had only been told informally that some family members were scouting for gold at the farmhouse in his area of jurisdiction.

“If it is a ritual, I am Zvimba, I deserve to be consulted,” he said.

“Who gave them the authority to dig in a farmhouse that belongs to council and government? If it is a ritual, it is not done in a house, but in the forest. How can rituals in our family be performed without the involvement of senior spirit mediums like Dutsa and Mushayapekuvaka? Everyone from the Gushungo clan had the right to know and participate.”

Chief Beperere (Alfred Tome) also professed ignorance, adding if the family members were exhuming the remains of their relatives, they should have involved him and Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede’s office.

“But even though, this should be done with the involvement of the police and the Registrar-General’s Office,” Tome said.

Raphael Chakaramba, village head at Sunside Central which encompasses Lilfordia Farm, said he had not been consulted by the mediums about the alleged hidden treasure.

In October 2000, Levy, who was believed to have been well-connected to Zanu PF “bigwigs”, escaped with a $200 fine for importing 50 motorbikes inscribed “Police” without authority.

The motorbikes were recovered at the farmhouse where the Gushungo clan were scrounging for gold.

He, however, lost his Lilfordia Farm on the outskirts of Harare during the land reform programme, but retained his massive farmhouse.

In 2007, Mugabe’s government was misled by Mavhunga that diesel was oozing out from a rock at Maningwa Hills near Chinhoyi.

Mugabe dispatched a high-powered delegation of senior government ministers who included Sydney Sekeramayi, Didymus Mutasa, Kembo Mohadi, the late Mashonaland West governor Nelson Samkange and deputy police chief Godwin Matanga to the area on several occasions for rituals to enable the country to tap into the new-found “diesel”.

Mavhunga’s lies were later exposed, leading to her incarceration.