The Minister of Mines, Winston Chitando, has unveiled a plan to address gold smuggling following findings of the Al Jazeera Gold Mafia investigative report released one month ago.
Speaking at a Gold Mobilisation seminar in Harare, Chitando said the government is set to enhance security in gold production and sale. He said:
We are going to put stern measures so as to plug leakages. So far, our teams will scrutinise output for every gold producer and all the metallurgical records and make sure that all gold produced is channelled officially.
Al Jazeera’s four-part series revealed that a significant amount of gold worth billions of United States dollars is being smuggled out of Zimbabwe by organised criminals in collaboration with state officials from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Fidelity Printers and Refinery, and airport employees.
Senior figures in government and mining, including President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Special Envoy Uebert Angel, were secretly recorded providing information on money laundering and gold smuggling.
The Fidelity Printers and Refinery has deployed 17 teams across the country to combat the problem. Several individuals, including politicians and businessmen, were implicated, but none have been arrested.
The Zimbabwean government has denied the Al Jazeera report on the “Gold Mafia” allegations. The government has rejected these allegations, describing them as baseless and false. The government has also stated that it is committed to combating illegal gold trading and smuggling.