Drax, Nguwaya & the Mnangagwas
1. A lot has been said about the grossly inflated deal between the Government of Zimbabwe (GOZ) & Drax International. An intriguing feature is the alleged role of politically exposed persons & the denials. This thread considers pieces of the jigsaw
1. A lot has been said about the grossly inflated deal between the Government of Zimbabwe (GOZ) & Drax International. An intriguing feature is the alleged role of politically exposed persons & the denials. This thread considers pieces of the jigsaw
2. We know that UAE-based Drax which per its website was established in 2020 got contracts worth US$60 million from the GOZ. The prices of a consignment of #COVID19 goods were grossly inflated. It is the exposure of this inflated deal which opened a can of worms.
3. It was alleged that Drax was linked to President Mnangagwa’s son, Collins. However, Drax vehemently denied this link & threatened legal action. Nevertheless, it admitted that its sole representative in Zimbabwe was one Dilesh Nguwaya. The name also appears as “Dylish Nguwaya”
4. Collins Mnangagwa also issued a terse statement distancing himself from Drax and the grossly inflated and suspiciously corrupt deal with the GOZ. He accused “errant malcontents” of “peddling fake news”. He denied any “business or personal relationship with Mr Delish Nguwaya”
5. So Drax admits links to Delish while Collins denies links the chap. So who is Delish Nguwaya? A site called Vantunews has a profile of the gentleman. It describes him with a picture as “a business associate and friend of Collins Mnangagwa”. Collins is allegedly in the picture.
6. Long before this saga, the name Dylish Nguwaya had already been associated with Collins Mnangagwa. Businessman Frank Buyanga named Nguwaya as a “close companion to the Mnangagwa family” in a complaint submitted to the Judicial Services Commission over a child custody wrangle
7. Buyanga also named Delish Nguwaya in another complaint submitted to the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission associating him with the Mnangagwa family. He is reported as saying “Collins Mnangagwa, Dylish Nguwaya and others are working as a disruptive criminal cabal”.
8. Now, all these are allegations. One mention of a relationship may be an accident. Twice might be a coincidence. But 3 times suggests a pattern. When Buyanga made his claims of association between Nguwaya & the Mnangagwas, the current Drax controversy did not exist.
9. There was certainly no motivation on Buyanga’s part to soil Collins’ image in the Drax deal by associating him with Dylish Nguwaya. The Drax issue was not an issue at the time. I may have missed it but I don’t recall a statement by Collins denying links to Nguwaya at the time
10. Are Delish Nguwaya and Collins Mnangagwa two extremely unlucky chaps who happen to be associated with uncouth matters on two separate & different occasions - by Buyanga over child custody & by the media over Drax and the inflated & suspiciously corrupt deal with the GOZ?
11. In Britain or other countries with a robust press, the public would know by now what Nguwaya had for dessert yesterday, his favourite tipple & other habits. Some would have come out of the woodworks with tales of the chap & his alleged relationship with those in high places
12. But as they say ngeSiNdebele Okule mpondo akufihlwa emgodleni. Rina manyanga hariputirwi. That which has horns cannot be concealed forever. It’s on occasions like these that I imagine my alternative career path as a journalist wouldn’t have been a bad choice after all :-)
13. That there is no smoke without fire can never be an overused cliche. Something smells and it is not a pleasant smell. Skeletons could tumble out of several closets. Now that’s probably a metaphor too many so I will stop here.
