WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2004-03-02 Posted By: Jan
From the News Archives of: WWW.AfricanCrisis.Org
Date & Time Posted: 3/2/2004 1:43:28 PM
Zim: Vice President in grain scam allegations
[When you’re at the top – there are no rules. Carte Blanche is a very good investigative TV program in South Africa. Jan]
Acting President Joseph Msika and several prominent politicians named by a South African television programme as having been involved in the scandalous exportation of grain and externalisation of foreign currency have denied the allegations and threatened legal action against the news channel. M-nets Carte Blanche programme recently presented a story which claimed that Msika, retired army commander Solomon Mujuru, local government, public works and national housing minister Ignatius Chombo, former Mashonaland West governor Peter Chanetsa, Chinhoyi MP Phillip Chiyangwa, and prominent farmer Cyril Muderede exported grain at the height of Zimbabwes food woes and externalised the proceeds therefrom. Quoting a former customs official and a serving Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operative, the programme claimed the six had allegedly used their political clout to flout standing regulations barring exportation of maize and wheat. The people…mentioned as being involved are Ignatius Chombo, minister of local government; General Solomon Mujuru, the ex-commander of the Zimbabwe National Army; Peter Chanetsa, the former governor of Mashonaland West; Phillip Chiyangwa, MP for Chinhoyi; and the current vice president, Joseph Msika, a transcript of the programme reads.
Responding to the allegations last night, acting president Joseph Msika said the allegations were inspired by malice, as he had not engaged in any such unscrupulous activities. I have not exported grain, its all malicious, its all intended for malicious purposes, so I dismiss that story with the contempt it deserves, he said. Mujuru and Chombo, in separate interviews, informed this newspaper last night that they had begun consultations with their respective lawyers with a view to suing Carte Blanche over the allegations, which they described as patently false. I have never exported grain since I was born, actually I intend to sue Carte Blanche for defamation, Mujuru said. Chombo, who confirmed that he had seen a transcript of the programme, also categorically denied any involvement in the grain exportation scam. I have never exported grain nor imported anything, I have never done that business, Chombo said. He argued that the reason why the programme had included him on its list was probably to do with the programme producers assumption that since Muderede also hailed from Mashonaland West, he had therefore received the blessings of senior political figures in the province, Chombo included.
In the Carte Blanche transcript, whose contents were also published by the Herald last Tuesday, a former customs official based at the Chirundu border post claimed he had been pushed out of his job by his superiors who felt they could not expose the graft in grain exportation fearing reprisals from the named prominent politicians. At first you would be doing your job in a proper way, but unfortunately there is too much political interference, especially for example, politicians. They are the biggest smugglers at the (Chirundu) border. There was this guy, Muderede, he was one of the biggest smugglers, if not the biggest at the border but he is politically connected, he is very powerful. Those guys dont use papers, they bulldoze in. If you go in their way that will be the end of you, said the customs official, who was not named. When he wrote a report on the alleged smuggling activities he was immediately summoned to Harare by his boss who advised him to resign with immediate effect because something was going to happen to him if he did not leave. I did exactly that, said the customs official.
The Carte Blanche article also mentions customs sources revealing massive smuggling of grain across the Chirundu border. A customs official said seven trucks laden with wheat passed through the border post and another four trucks carrying sugar but purporting to be carrying cement were impounded on 22 May 2003. A customs official said she had witnessed more than 30 trucks that had gone across the border laden with grain. Basic foods like maize and wheat are subsidized and the Grain Marketing Board has the monopoly to sell and move grain in the country. Over five million people are in need of food aid in Zimbabwe. The CIO operative said his team of private investigators had followed several leads, finally pinning down the smugglers to a farm in Mashonaland West. At the farm trucks were loaded with maize before heading for Chirundu border post. I had received reports that Cyril Muderede was illegally exporting wheat and maize to Zambia and Zaire, or now the DRC. Perhaps you might want to know that Cyril Muderede is a former CIO bodygurad, the CIO source revealed.
Muderedes farm, Shankuru Estates, is well known and is often touted as a successful model of the land reform programme. A Commonwealth team once visited the farm on a guided tour which was addressed by Msika. The CIO operative also alleged that Muderede and Msika have been working in cahoots in the grain exportation scam. He then started doing things with Joseph Msika, the Vice President, who is related to his wife, and Chanetsa, who was then governor of Mashonaland West, he said. But the Vice-President flatly denied the allegations. Thats rubbish, I have never worked with anybody. I dont have that culture, Msika said. Muderede was arrested recently by police for illegally exporting maize and depositing the proceeds into an account in Luxemborg. A subsistence farmer interviewed by Carte Blanche claimed that the maize being smuggled out of the country was sourced from communal farmers who sold it for well over the price offered by the GMB. Carte Blanche also obtained copies of three cheques made out to the communal farmers, which were signed by Muderede on behalf of Shankuru Estates. He goes everywhere and collects. He does the weighing, bagging and sewing of the bags at his farm, and its been rumoured that that grain is exported outside the country, revealed one communal farmer. Efforts to get Muderede, Chanetsa and Chiyangwa to comment were fruitless last night as their mobile phones were not reachable.
Source:Sunday Mirror (Zimb)
URL: http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID…br>