The leaked documents show how the Moti Group was teed up to benefit from a drive by the Zimbabwean regime to claw back mining rights from existing holders.
In terms of the joint venture agreement, ACF would do the actual mining and processing of ore, while RNH would acquire the mineral concessions to mine and pave the way for ACF by obtaining permits and clearing regulatory hurdles. Moti also denied that there was anything improper in Mnangagwa senior representing one of the parties in mediation between RNH and ACF.
In another example, ACF was permitted to"set-off" amounts owed to other Moti Group companies across the border in South Africa against its revenue – something Moti says was just to"facilitate ease of cashflow for operational purposes in the context of severe liquidity challenges". Moti told amaBhungane,"I did not, and do not hold a diplomatic passport from any country", though he did not deny having requested one. He described his offer to provide fuel to the Zimbabwean police and armed forces as a"philanthropic" gesture to"support local government in the area in which ACF operates".
The same document noted that ACF’s joint venture with the Ministry of Defence gave the company"access to all claims currently owned by larger players".An April letter from Moti Group executive Ashruf Kaka to the vice president is typical of the group’s routine interactions with Mnangagwa. Moti said that"numerous countries, including Zimbabwe and South Africa, offer various incentives to investors to attract foreign direct investment, promote economic growth and create jobs". National Project status, he added, was one such incentive that was granted to many other companies.
"More importantly, this request was refused, which demonstrates a clear and unequivocal application of discretion used, which did not always favour ACF."A June 2017 memo to Chiwenga prepared by Kaka proposed that Chiwenga push for a prisoner swap with the UAE in order to secure the extradition of one of Moti’s enemies resident in the UAE.
"This request was presented and after consultation that VP Chiwenga had with the department of justice, home affairs and other departments, the request was declined…"ACF’s operations in Chirumhanzu-Zibagwe soon became enmeshed in the local ZANU-PF patronage machine. The Midlands district is Mnangagwa’s former constituency and the area his wife Auxilia represented as a member of parliament from 2015 to 2018.
Keeping the local ZANU-PF and Mrs Mnangagwa onside appears to have paid off for ACF. Drummond stated in his email that"we had to provide the names of the workers committee, and MP Mnangagwa interrogated them and told them not to strike." It is unclear whether ACF was caught up in factional politics and this falling out came as a result of the company’s perceived closeness to the Mnangagwa faction, but in September 2017, just two months before the coup, Chidakwa’s Ministry informed the Moti Group of its refusal to reissue ACF’s export permit to allow it to export chrome ore.
ACF’s partnership with RNH, the Zimbabwean military-owned company, was also becoming increasingly fraught. On 17 November, in the midst of the coup that had begun three days earlier, RNH addressed an angry letter to ACF, accusing the company of dragging its feet in getting the joint venture up and running. RNH accused ACF of having"exhibited insincerity" and demanded $1.2 million for what it said was ACF’s"illegal" exploitation of its mining concession.
The Moti Group’s deal with the Zimbabwean tycoon involved the sale of a 30% stake in ACF to Sakunda for $120 million paid in instalments through to mid-2018. Over December and January, $2 million was transferred from ACF to a company called Cosmotex Investments controlled jointly by Lishon Chipango, who held varying stakes in ACF via Spincash, and Evelyn Chakuinga, reported to be Chiwenga’s niece.On 4 July 2018, shortly before the 2018 elections, $1.
From the moment of Moti’s arrest in Germany, where he was held for five months until January 2019, there followed a torrent of correspondence between him and his associates as they tried to lobby for his release, mount an international legal defence, and shuffle money and assets around the world for pay for this.
In another letter early on in his detention, Moti asked Mnangagwa to convince German Chancellor Angela Merkel to intervene in his arrest, writing:"Pls can you write a letter to Mrs Merkel of Germany requesting her input into this matter as I am a friend of the Zimbabwean people uncle.""I don’t know what you base your assumptions on since you refuse to let me have sight of the documents, nor do you actually ask a question.
Throughout the documents,"No1" or"Uncle" are used to refer to President Mnangagwa, while"No2" or"CDF" are used for his deputy, Chiwenga. In one letter that appears to have been digitally transcribed by one of his employees, Moti instructed his assistant to"take $30" to"No1" and"read my letter to him as well as let him see that I care for him and don’t forget him ever".
Point"d" of the letter is particularly illuminating, as there is a deleted line which reads:"30% to Moti current shareholding to be allocated to Indigenization Partners". Alongside that someone inserted the following comment:"Do we include this in the bank proposal? This will be the first official communication to that effect.
Internal Moti Group correspondence concerning the dispute with Tagwirei suggests that Moti’s appeals to"Number One" and"Number Two" did not fall on deaf ears. Kaka told amaBhungane that as a shareholder, Tagwirei had various financial obligations to ACF, which were managed by ACF and the Moti Group’s treasury department.
The attempts to get Tagwirei to pay up proved exhausting, and in later letters Moti continued to urge his employees to"push" Number One and Number Two on dealing with Kuda.
In the letter, Moti articulated his preferred strategy for ACF to"crowd" the Great Dyke – a geological feature where most of Zimbabwe’s chrome deposits are found – but to take over the area quietly to avoid others piling in and so as not to create"'hype' in the market as prices will go mad". "Some of the people and companies mentioned are only accessible via No1," Moti wrote,"Get an 'in principle' agreement with No1 and No2 and then this will further drive via MOM [Ministry of Mines] offices else you just wasting your time as the companies will want big money".
In October 2018, a letter from one of Moti’s employees stated:"Zim is not the same as you knew it. It will either settle or get worse. Relationships are changing and alliances are altering. Kuda under pressure… CDF [Chiwenga] is key to an extent but he is only back at work tomorrow for cabinet and back home. He is really ill. One and two not best of mates it seems too… noises."
To do this, the documents suggest he was going to rely on the Botswana opposition as a Trojan horse, by backing Duma Boko’s Umbrella for Democratic Change. It is not clear whether Boko or the UDC had agreed to any of these plans, and he did not respond to the Sentry’s request for comment.