Henrietta Rushwaya, the politically connected president of the Zimbabwe Miners’ Federation (ZMF), avoided an 18-month suspended sentence and a R95 000 fine in 2020 for her attempt to smuggle 6kg of gold, estimated to be worth R6.2 million, into the United Arab Emirates.
The fact that “she has no prior convictions” and that “there is no evidence to show that this offence was committed as part of an organized crime” were factors that Harare High Court Judge Pisirayi Kwenda mentioned.
In a different incident, Tashinga Nyasha Masinire, her former driver, was detained upon arrival at OR Tambo International Airport in May 2021 by agents of the Hawks’ severe organised crime investigative unit.
He had smuggled three gold bars concealed in a box of liquor.
He was found guilty in Johannesburg and given a fine of R40,000 or two years in prison. However, Rushwaya’s case proceeded slowly. She was the main character in Al Jazeera’s four-part series Gold Mafia, which exposed gold smuggling.
During her trial, Rushwaya claimed she picked up the wrong bag, which she attempted to smuggle through the VIP section of the Harare International Airport. Her sentence, which was handed down nearly three years later, was viewed by some as a light-hearted statement that “smuggling of minerals is a petty crime in Zimbabwe.”.
He added:
The ruling is quite sad in a country where mineral smuggling is now the biggest business for the ruling elites. The ruling is an incentive for smuggling; it will be a major reference in future judgments.
“There is also injustice. The same courts have sentenced poor Zimbabweans to jail for periods ranging from two to five years for merely possessing half a gram of gold they had not stolen from anyone,” he said.
In the past, small infractions involving gold and other minerals have resulted in harsher punishments.
Benson Muchemanyama and Welldone Darlington Ncube, two gold panners, were found in possession of various amounts of alluvial gold in 2013. As a result, they were each given a five-year prison sentence for possessing gold without a mining or prospecting licence.
Nicola Moyo, a 23-year-old sex worker, was sentenced to five years in prison in 2017 for having 0.22g of gold, or roughly R3.
When it comes to crimes, smuggling is more serious than illegal possession.
In 2015, James Ray Tudhope was taken into custody on suspicion of trying to smuggle R19 million worth of gold into Botswana.
He was given an R38,000 bond, and he hasn’t been seen since.
The annual value of Zimbabwe’s gold smuggling operation is estimated to be R85.5 billion.
