HARARE – A fresh financial scandal has erupted in Zimbabwe’s Treasury involving a shadowy company, Gaingrid Investments (Private) Limited, allegedly connected to Zanu PF legislator and gold dealer Pedzisai “Scott” Sakupwanya.
The company has been paid nearly US$100 million by the government in what insiders describe as a deeply fraudulent and corrupt gold incentive scheme.
According to confidential government documents obtained by The NewsHawks, the transaction has exposed serious financial mismanagement by the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion (MoFEDIP), led by permanent secretary George Guvamatanga. The deal, originally pegged at US$60 million, ballooned to nearly US$100 million under questionable circumstances.
The documents show that Gaingrid was contracted by the government and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to buy and sell gold in a bid to bolster the country’s bullion reserves. The company was to receive a 5% incentive for every ounce of gold delivered to Fidelity Printers and Refiners, a state-owned entity.
War veterans’ leader Blessed Geza confirmed that Gaingrid is linked to Sakupwanya, a well-known gold trader and close associate of President Emmerson Mnangagwa. However, company records remain opaque, with no clear identification of its directors.
Despite the lack of transparency, government records show that Guvamatanga authorised payments totalling nearly US$100 million to Gaingrid, far exceeding the originally claimed US$60 million. The overpayment has raised alarm over the potential misuse of public funds, with suspicions that as much as US$36 million may have been diverted as kickbacks or “money for the boys”.
In a letter dated 7 April 2025, Ministry of Finance senior economist Itai Munaki confirmed to Ecobank Zimbabwe Managing Director Moses Kurenjekwa that the government still owed Gaingrid US$36 million, with US$6 million scheduled for payment within seven days.
In another earlier letter dated 4 September 2024, Guvamatanga wrote to Kurenjekwa outlining a “collateralised facility” in which the ministry undertook to “irrevocably pay Gaingrid monthly instalments of at least US$8 million” over 12 months — a total of US$96 million. This arrangement, coupled with the US$20 million cash discount facility arranged through Ecobank, suggests the state may have committed to more than US$100 million in repayments.
Legal experts say the deal violates the Public Finance Management Act [Chapter 22:19], which vests borrowing powers exclusively in the Minister of Finance — not the permanent secretary. According to Section 54 of the Act, only the minister may authorise borrowing via Treasury Bills, bonds, or advances.
“This is outright illegal. Guvamatanga has no mandate under the law to make these borrowing arrangements,” said a senior lawyer familiar with the matter.
The murky financial engineering also involved the discounting of Treasury Bills — government debt instruments typically offered at a reduced rate to raise quick funds. In this case, Ecobank reportedly discounted US$60 million in government liabilities to Gaingrid to US$20 million — a move seen as a deliberate attempt to mask the real cost of the transaction and facilitate fraud.
Sources familiar with the matter described the arrangement as a “venal transaction fuelled by bribery and corruption.”
“There is method in the madness,” one source told The NewsHawks, hinting at systematic looting.
This scandal follows closely on the heels of another controversial deal in which Guvamatanga is accused of authorising an “illegal and unconstitutional” US$20 million bank guarantee to Valley Seeds, a company reportedly linked to the government’s command agriculture programme. In that case, Ecobank was also involved, and the Treasury committed to paying back the discounted loan in US$5 million monthly instalments over a year — totalling US$60 million.
Former Finance Minister Tendai Biti condemned the transactions as “looting on a grand scale.”
Efforts to contact Guvamatanga for comment were unsuccessful, as his mobile phone was unreachable at the time of publication.
Critics say these scandals are just the tip of the iceberg in a government increasingly reliant on opaque financial instruments and politically connected companies to manage national resources. With inflation soaring and the majority of Zimbabweans struggling under the weight of an economic crisis, revelations of such large-scale corruption are likely to deepen public anger and erode trust in state institutions.
