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Grace Mugabe accused of smuggling ivory, gold, diamonds from Zimbabwe

By Peta Thornycroft, London Telegraph, 25 March 2018

Harare: Zimbabwe police have launched an investigation into Grace Mugabe, the former First Lady, over allegations that she headed a poaching and smuggling syndicate that illegally exported tons of elephant tusks, gold, and diamonds from the country.

Emmerson Mnangagwa, the president of Zimbabwe, sanctioned an “urgent” investigation into Grace Mugabe’s activities after “very strong” evidence was uncovered by Adrian Steirn, an Australian photo-journalist.

Grace Mugabe, who wielded significant power in Zimbabwean politics until Robert Mugabe, her husband, was ousted in a soft coup last November, was named as the alleged mastermind of the illegal operation by two suspected poachers who were later arrested in a police sting after trying to sell tusks to Mr Steirn.

She has not yet been charged.

Zimbabwe is home to about 86,000 elephants, the second largest population in Africa, according to a 2016 census. That figure represented a 10 per cent drop since 2005.

Although the population is considered healthy in the north-west of the country, losses have been heavy in other parts. About 900 elephants were lost to poachers between 2013 and 2016, nearly 250 of them poisoned with cyanide or shot.

Grace Mugabe’s name was linked to large scale wildlife trafficking following a four-month investigation by Steirn, who posed as a customer for contraband ivory to infiltrate the smuggling and poaching networks.

Steirn said he decided to launch the investigation after hearing rumours about Grace Mugabe’s complicity in trade during several years reporting on wildlife crime in Africa. Lloyd, a man who spent five years in prison for poaching, provided the initial evidence that triggered the investigation.

“For years I’ve been documenting the front-line poachers who end up serving 20 years for shooting a giraffe. Meanwhile, she was taking billions of dollars out of the country,” Steirn said. “If they charge and arrest her, and she goes to jail for wildlife crimes, that will change the dynamic of the entire perception of wildlife trafficking across Africa,” he said.

Undercover footage filmed by Steirn shows several sources, including suspected poachers and intelligence, wildlife and aviation officials, describing how Grace Mugabe smuggled ivory poached in national parks or looted from government warehouses out of the country by exploiting an exemption from airport security screening as First Lady.

They include Fariken Madzinga, 48, a registered dealer of ivory who describes in the footage how he also runs a syndicate that handles both poached ivory and tusks stolen from the government’s secure stockpiles of wildlife products on behalf of Grace Mugabe.

In conversations with Steirn recorded before his arrest, Madzinga described how he relies on “the president and first lady” to get contraband tusks out of the country. “In order for it to pass through customs, the goods of the First Lady were not searched. She had immunity from the government,” he added. “There is nobody who is going to open this.”

Documents suggest that an airport security loophole also extended to cargo shipments marked as assigned to the First Lady, allowing a much larger scale of traffic than would be possible in personal luggage.

An Airport Security Protocol (ASP), issued by the Mugabe government’s Civil Aviation Authority, and printed on its letterhead, instructs the cargo department and all airport security not to scan or search any consignment connected to the first family or their entourage.

While it is usual practice to exempt diplomats and heads of state, as well as immediate family members travelling with them, from searches, it is highly unusual to extend that waiver to unaccompanied cargo or beyond immediate family members. Christopher Mutsvangwa, a special adviser to Mnangagwa, said the president was aware of the allegations and had sanctioned the investigation based on the information revealed by Steirn.

“We have commenced a full inquiry in addition to ongoing investigations into the recent seizure of a large quantity of ivory that was bound for an overseas destination,” Mutsvangwa, a former leader of Zimbabwe’s powerful association of War Veterans and a long standing critic of Grace Mugabe within the ruling Zanu PF party, said. “The government of Zimbabwe will seek answers from all parties who have been implicated in this matter, including former First Lady Grace Mugabe and former minister of environment Saviour Kasukuwere,” he said in an interview in Moscow, where he was an observer at last week’s Russian presidential election.

Mustvangwa said there is currently no suggestion that Robert Mugabe, who is now 94, is implicated in the smuggling ring.

However, he added that there was mounting evidence that the gang included high-ranking members of Mugabe’s security apparatus and that the systemic smuggling also involved rhino horn, diamonds, and gold. “Ivory is just one part of it,” he said.

In his last five years in office, Mr Mugabe regularly travelled for medical treatment to Singapore using Air Zimbabwe’s only long-haul aircraft, a Boeing 767. He was often accompanied by Mrs Mugabe.

He last visited the city state in December, a month after he left office.

On the same day he flew out of Harare, on December 11, a consignment of 200 kilograms of ivory destined for Kuala Lumpur was seized at Harare international airport.

While Grace Mugabe’s alleged customers have not been named, Mutswanga said the buyers are assumed to be organised criminal groups operating out of China and Malaysia. Such gangs have been linked to multi-million dollar poaching operations across Africa and have a reputation for extreme violence.

In August last year Wayne Lotter, a South African conservationist investigating ivory smuggling networks, was shot dead in Tanzania.

And last month Esmond Bradley Martin, an American, and one of the world’s leading experts on the illegal wildlife trade, was stabbed to death at his home in Nairobi.

The exposure of top Zimbabwean officials in the illegal wildlife trade will come as little surprise to conservationists, who say official corruption, including cooperating with major organised crime networks, has fuelled poaching.

“Corruption is key all along the supply chain,” said Lucy Vigne, a leading researcher into the smuggling of illegal ivory and rhino horn from Africa. “Officials may turn a blind eye for bribes or collude with the criminal traders in illegal wildlife trade activities themselves.”

“There has been a concerted international effort to bring down the high-level trafficking networks of which Grace is an example,” said Frank Pope, chief executive officer of Save The Elephants, a leading charity.

“She is not alone in being a senior figure in this kind of stuff, not alone in this current crisis and not alone in the historical perspective of the ivory trade. There have been other senior figures who’ve lined their pockets substantially from the ivory trade.”

Grace Mugabe did not respond to multiple requests to comment.

Father Fidelis Mukonori, who is close to the Mugabe family, said he discussed the allegations with Mrs Mugabe and she said she was “unconcerned. She said it doesn’t matter.”

#Zimbabwe #Grace Mugabe #Grace Mugabe smuggling

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