Controversial businessman Wicknell Chivayo has revealed how he uses his close relationship with President Emmerson Mnangagwa to secure lucrative, multi-million-dollar deals.
In a leaked voice note that has been circulating on social media platforms, Chivayo reveals that he has “captured” Mnangagwa, boasting that he can get anything he wants from the President.
Chivayo told his associates in the WhatsApp group from which the audio leaked, to be patient and stop fighting his attempts to capture the President further while promising them millions.
He mentions fellow businessmen Moses Mpofu and Mike Chimombe, both of whom he allegedly duped in a US$40 million deal with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to supply voting material ahead of the 2023 general elections.
The duo claimed Chivayo sidelined them from the lucrative deal, using the money to fund his extravagant lifestyle, including buying luxury cars and mansions.
Chivayo also claims he is about to clinch deals worth millions with Zimbabwe’s immigration department and the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP). He said:
Next week I’m getting another one which is US$5,2 million. Then we start other projects with the police, immigration and so forth.
I am holding this thing in my hand. When he (Mnangagwa) went to Italy I walked him to his aeroplane where he proceeded to bid farewell and call me his son.
We talked. After greeting all the two Vice Presidents, he gave me assignments to do when he was away and shouted at me ‘I will call you when I get to Italy’.
Added Chivayo:
I am inside the President’s circle. Take advantage of that, do not eat from where I would have worked or from what caused problems for us in the past.
We know we once stepped on his toes but he has forgiven us and accepted us back.
According to NewZimbabwe.com, Chivayo fell out with Mnangagwa and the Lacoste Faction he led at the height of ZANU PF factionalism some months before the November 2017 military coup.
Chivayo, an ex-convict, has been ingratiating himself with ZANU PF by donating tens of thousands of US dollars worth of vehicles to its more prominent supporters. He said:
I am at least 20 times richer than I was before the elections. You (Chimombe and Mpofu) are now below my level. We could have risen together but now you have to be patient.
Let us just give this new arrangement three months as we get closer to the President. I need a team like that where we share ideas.
Chivayo’s source of wealth is not known. His company, Intratek Zimbabwe company is only known for having failed to deliver on a solar power plant in Gwanda despite getting US$5 million from the Zimbabwe Power Company.
Meanwhile, in what appears to be a veiled warning to Chivayo, Government spokesperson Nick Mangwana posted on X:
FLYING TOO CLOSE TO THE SUN: Icarus was warned by his father not to fly too close to the sun, as the wax that his wings were made from would melt.
But fueled by the adrenaline rush of flying, Icarus failed to rein in his excitement and felt he was the man of the moment.
He did not heed the warnings, Icarus was so intoxicated by the experience of flying and never thought he could tumble from this loft height, so he flew higher and higher getting closer and closer to the sun.
The closer he came to the sun, the more the wax in his wings melted. He tumbled into the sea and drowned.
ZANU PF Director for Information and Publicity Farai Muroiwa Marapira wrote on X: “There are some things that are played with and dithered with. Not our Leader and President. There’s one guaranteed thing about people on high horses…. They fall off… Pride comes before a great fall…”
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