🔒 Zimbabwe’s fuel pipeline allegedly ‘captured’ by Trafigura

CAPE TOWN — Finding the truth in amongst all the smoke and mirrors of Zimbabwe’s ‘State Capture’ fuel pipeline controversy will take some doing. On the one hand, the price and availability of petrol are already hot potatoes, leading to riots, clampdowns and deaths earlier this year. On the other, Zimbabwe, somewhat like South Africa, is dealing with the legacy of corrupt and despotic leadership, lending credence to the claim that the involvement of an influential Zanu-PF-linked intermediary for a global commodities trader/fuel supplier is hiking costs. The fuel comes from Beira, via the State-owned pipeline, to Harare for distribution. Sakunda (the intermediary company) allegedly enjoys politically-favoured use of it. It’s generally accepted that Zimbabwe’s fuel prices are hugely inflated. Up for debate however, is why. It’s claimed that Swiss-based commodities trader Trafigura, has through Sakunda, ‘captured” use of the pipeline, reaping exclusive and shadowy profits, something it vehemently denies. All the elements we’ve come to recognise in South Africa’s State Capture are present, but nothing’s yet proven or elicited by a probe or commission. As we know from painful daily experience, nothing is sacred when it comes to State Capture. – Chris Bateman

By Thulasizwe Sithole

A Swiss-based global commodities trader is facing accusations that it used a Zanu-PF-linked local facilitator and partner to ‘capture’ exclusive fuel supply rights to Zimbabwe.
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In claims reminiscent of major private corporations ‘capturing’ South African State-owned enterprises to generate massive profits in return for handsome pay-offs of politically-connected local brokers, the controversy adds a new dimension to Zimbabwe’s woes.

The global trader, Trafigura, is in a joint-venture with Sakunda, owned by Kudakwashe Tagwirei, a businessman with historical clout in the ruling Zanu-PF party. Tagwirei allegedly has influence over several critical levers of the economy, such as access to US dollars.

Trafigura owns 49% of the joint venture with Sakunda and advances fuel on credit to the Zimbabwean government. The accusations are politically-charged, coming hard on the heels of fuel-price hike protests that elicited a brutal government crackdown in January.

However, politicians in both President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s ZANU-PF party and the main opposition party have taken on Trafigura over its use of the colourful local intermediary boss, known as “Queen Bee” in local political and corporate circles. The claims fit neatly into the opposition Movement for Democratic Change’s charge that much-needed reforms are being undermined by vested interests.

Critical cash shortages and long queues outside petrol stations are hammering President Mnangagwa’s oft repeated pledge that Zimbabwe is ‘open for business,’ via his new investment-friendly policies. Economist and former opposition MP in Zimbabwe, Eddie Cross, says much of the fuel price is premium, ‘generated’ by the current business arrangement, emphasising that each cent per litre represents the dollar equivalent of R14m to R28m.