David Chapfika, chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Budget and Finance, was involved in facilitating matters for the collapsed ENG Capital Asset Management, according to the United States embassy.
It disclosed this after the arrest of flamboyant businessman Phillip Chiyangwa who was also linked to the company and had reportedly been enlisted to protect two ENG principals from creditors.
ENG collapsed after its principal director Gilbert Muponda and Nyasha Watyoka allegedly defrauded it of Z$61 billion.
Full cable:
Viewing cable 04HARARE73, RULING PARTY TURNS ON ONE OF ITS OWN
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HARARE 000073
SIPDIS
AF/S FOR S. DELISI, L. AROIAN, M. RAYNOR
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR J. FRAZER, D. TEITELBAUM
LONDON FOR C. GURNEY
PARIS FOR C. NEARY
NAIROBI FOR T. PFLAUMER
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/12/2009
TAGS: PGOV PHUM ECON EFIN ZI ZANU PF
SUBJECT: RULING PARTY TURNS ON ONE OF ITS OWN
REF: 03 HARARE 2364
Classified By: Political Officer Win Dayton under Section 1.5(b)(d)
¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Flamboyant ZANU-PF MP and prominent
businessman Philip Chiyangwa was arrested January 10 on
charges relating to a GOZ investigation of troubled ENG
Capital Asset Management (ENG). His arrest manifests
divisions within the ruling party that probably are based on
business considerations and personal rivalries, not political
views. Chiyangwa’s difficulties may foreshadow additional
intramural combat stemming from failing economic fortunes of
selected principals and machinations among ambitious or
insecure ZANU-PF politicians. END SUMMARY.
¶2. (C) Chiyangwa, the ZANU-PF MP for Chinhoyi, has remained
in jail since his arrest, emerging only for court hearings
over the weekend and again January 12. The High Court ruled
over the weekend that police had no grounds to hold Chiyangwa
but police refused to release him. According to the
government-controlled Herald newspaper, police claimed that
the High Court order was technically invalid because it had
been addressed to the wrong official. Late January 12 a
magistrate’s court heard defense counsel’s petition to have
charges dismissed. The magistrate reserved judgment and
remanded Chiyangwa into police custody. The magistrate is
expected to decide this week whether Chiynagwa has a case to
answer and, if so, to consider application for bail. An
attorney with the law firm representing Chiyangwa told the
embassy that police had been unavailable to discuss the
matter with counsel and would not predict when Chiyangwa
might be released.
¶3. (U) Chiyangwa reportedly faces charges of obstructing
justice, perjury, and contempt of court. The first two
charges relate to his alleged lack of cooperation with
authorities in their investigation of ENG during the last two
weeks. Two ENG principals reportedly had enlisted
Chiyangwa’s support in protecting them from creditors and in
getting a criminal fraud investigation against them scotched
(Chairman of the Parliamentary Budget, Finance, and Economic
Planning Committee David Chapfika reportedly also was
involved in “facilitating” matters for ENG). Chiyangwa
allegedly had sheltered some of the ENG principals’ cars from
creditors and obstructed police efforts to recover them. The
second charge stemmed from Chiyangwa asserting in open court
last week during proceedings on ENG that he “would deal with”
police connected to the case. He refused the sitting
magistrate’s instruction to retract the statement.
¶4. (U) Media reports during recent months indicated that
many components of Chiyangwa’s diversified business empire
were overleveraged or being sold at distressed prices. The
government-oriented Mirror on January 11 further reported
that Chiyangwa was attempting to extort ZD400 million (USD
60,000) from FSI Agricom Holdings through an illegal lease
arrangement relating to a farm he had seized — allegedly
outside the terms of the GOZ land reform program. The
article added that Chiyangwa had sent thugs from the
so-called Chinhoyi-based “Top Six” gang to suppress violently
FSI’s efforts to remove its equipment from the property.
¶5. (C) Curiously, the law firm retained by the ruling party
stalwart is known best for election petitions and other
actions aligned with the opposition. One lawyer from the
firm noted that the actions supporting the charges against
Chiyangwa — sheltering the cars and then threatening the
police — would normally have required arrest on the spot or
no arrest at all. Indeed, the magistrate who heard the
threat to police took no action when Chiyangwa refused his
instruction to retract it. It was only later that he was
arrested, which the lawyer suggested indicated the
intervention of high-level officials.
¶6. (C) In his diatribe against party members who put
personal interests ahead of the party, President Mugabe
singled out Chiyangwa (and only Chiyangwa by name) for
warning during December’s national ruling party conference.
Vice-President Joseph Msika was one who had it in for
Chiyangwa; his January 9 warning to unnamed politicians who
abused their position and threatened law enforcement
authorities was widely reported by national media as a stern
warning to Chiyangwa. Perhaps reflecting more than
coincidence, Msika’s remarks were made at the opening of a
grocery store owned by ZANU-PF Central Committee member James
Makamba, who reputedly fought Chiyangwa over a farm seized
under land reform. A close relative of Msika confided to
DATT that Msika indeed had played a role in driving
proceedings and had waited to take action against Chiyangwa,
a distant Mugabe relation, until Mugabe was out of the
country and Msika himself would be acting president. A
second source who knows Msika well told us (on what basis we
do not know) that Msika informed Mugabe in advance of his
intention to act against Chiyangwa.
¶7. (C) COMMENT: A cocky favorite with the local media,
Chiyangwa is one of the most prominent of a new breed of
ZANU-PF young turks who have translated their position into
phenomenal business success by hook or by crook. The 44-year
old is a rough cut: during the run-up to the 2002 elections,
he took out ads promising money to supporters and appeared in
video clips encouraging violence against white farmers and
MDC supporters. More recently, his notorious “Top Six” gang
has been implicated in violently preventing MDC political
candidates from filing nomination papers, as well as in the
violent seizure of farm properties. A high profile black
empowerment advocate, Chiyangwa is a lightning rod who
provokes strong reactions among Zimbabweans; dozens of his
supporters (including other politicians) chanted
revolutionary songs (and, curiously, anti-opposition slogans)
in his support at the courtroom during his hearing January 10.
¶8. (C) COMMENT (CONT’D): Notwithstanding his national
prominence and appeal to many, Chiyangwa clearly lost favor
with those who matter. His alleged improprieties generally
conformed to popular practice in Zimbabwe; that they did not
enjoy customary impunity substantiates the political nature
of his prosecution. Although the youthful Chiyangwa’s
political career may not be over for good, the rising star’s
rather sudden eclipse offers some lessons. First, it
underscores the precariousness of power among those who
jockey for position below the ruling party’s pinnacle. We do
not know fully what led to Chiyangwa’s apparent demise;
however, the braggadocio and colorful disdain for authority
that contributed to his fast rise to prominence appears also
to have been instrumental in his fall. In a party with but
one leader and voice, individualism and ambition often
provoke suspicion, jealousy and a concerted drawing of
daggers among rivals who view power as a zero sum game. His
plight, prominently chronicled in humiliating detail by the
government media, is a warning to other party mavericks and
rising stars. The turning of the state media, always under
the control of Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, against
Chiyangwa is itself an object lesson on the fickleness of
cronyism.
¶9. (C) COMMENT (CONT’D): The decline of Chiyangwa’s business
empire certainly reduced his value to the party and to those
in the party who might have protected him. In that vein,
there are other party business moguls who, like Chiyangwa,
are finding themselves dangerously overextended — and
increasingly expendable — as the economy continues its
downward spiral. Those who, like Chiyangwa, have built
economic and political success at the expense of rule of law
may increasingly find themselves hoisted on their own petard
should Zimbabwe continue on its current course. The
situation appears ripe for additional intrigue and
bloodletting within the ruling party but, with depth of
personal loyalty to Mugabe being the principal credential for
career security and advancement, little of this augurs well
for a healthier policy-making environment.
SULLIVAN
(55 VIEWS)
