Human rights lawyer Siphosami Malunga has described the Mutapa Investment Fund as the greatest national heist since Cecil John Rhodes.
Rhodes was a South African-based British imperialist who worked with a missionary John Moffat in 1888/89 to trick King Lobengula into signing away his kingdom to his company, the British South Africa Company (BSAC), which eventually resulted in the annexation of Zimbabwe.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa recently invoked his Presidential Powers to rename the Sovereign Wealth Fund to the Mutapa Investment Fund and transfer the shares in State-owned enterprises to the new fund.
In a post on X, Malunga said the Mutapa Investment Fund will result in the privatisation of public wealth and resources in Zimbabwe. He wrote:
The unconstitutional Mutapa Investment Fund in Zimbabwe is not a Sovereign Wealth Fund but an untransparent, unaccountable, personalised funnel for appropriation and privatisation of Zimbabwe’s entire public wealth and resources and the greatest national heist since Cecil John Rhodes.
In an article published by ZimLive, Mt Pleasant MP Fadzayi Mahere (CCC), said the establishment of the Mutapa Investment Fund signals “a new era of predatory looting of state assets and natural resources by Mnangagwa and the illegal ‘Mutapa Mafia’” which Mnangagwa “will personally appoint”. Added Mahere:
Zimbabwe, a country reeling under 49 percent extreme poverty, triple-digit hyperinflation and an annual loss of US$2.2 billion to illicit financial flows cannot afford for its resources to bleed further.
It behooves all institutions of the state with a mandate to oversee corruption and poor public management including the auditor general, parliament, the judiciary, the media and the general citizenry to speak out against this illegal conduct and ensure that this latest unconstitutional enactment is reversed.
If this is not done, billions in state resources will be lost once again without any accountability or disclosure.
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