UK sanctions controversial Zimbabwean billionaire Kudakwashe Tagwirei

The United Kingdom announced an asset freeze and travel ban on Zimbabwean billionaire Kudakwashe Tagwirei on July 22. He will no longer be able to channel his money through UK banks, or to enter the country.

The sanctions will also apply to any entities owned or controlled by Tagwirei.

Tagwirei, who doubles as a special advisor to Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, was sanctioned under the UK’s Global Anti-Corruption Sanctions regime.

According to a report, the UK’s Foreign Office found Tagwirei guilty of enriching himself through misappropriation, thereby causing untold damages to Zimbabwe’s economy.

“The action we have taken today targets individuals who have lined their own pockets at the expense of their citizens,” UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said. “His company, Sakunda Holdings, redeemed government of Zimbabwe Treasury Bills at up to ten times their official value. His actions accelerated the deflation of Zimbabwe’s currency, increasing the price of essentials, such as food, for Zimbabwean citizens.”

The UK official further noted that Tagwirei profited significantly from the misappropriation of property at the expense of wider macroeconomic stability in Zimbabwe, “one of the most serious incidences of corruption under the current government.”

Tagwirei was sanctioned alongside four other individuals. They include Teodoro Obiang Mangue, the vice president of Equatorial Guinea, Alex Nain Saab Moran and Alvaro Enrique Pulido Vargas of Venezuela, and Nawfal Hammadi Al-Sultan, the imprisoned governor of Nineveh province in Iraq.

Last August, Tagwirei came under U.S. sanctions. A recent publication by a U.S investigative media group, The Sentry, also accused him of using complex corporate structures and preferential government treatment to loot Zimbabwe’s economy.

Donation

While the controversy triggered by The Sentry’s post was still making waves on the global media space, Tagwire’s Sakunda Holdings moved to donate $170 million to the state for COVID-19 vaccines in a bid to mitigate the virus impact in the Southern African country.

A twist in narrative

A few weeks back, Zimbabwe’s government claimed that it acquired its controlling stake in Kuvimba Mining House Limited (equally linked to Tagwirei) from a company linked to a tycoon.

However, on July 21, the National Treasury announced that its $250-million stake in the Kuvimba Mining House was a donation, contrary to the earlier statement.

Although it did not reveal who donated the stake, it was held until late last year by Sotic International Limited, a company linked to Tagwirei.