Deceased Zimbabwe businessman’s SA trail unpacked

Controversial Zimbabwean businessman Wicknell Chivayo, who is implicated in alleged money laundering of more than R800m in South Africa (SA), died on Wednesday when his helicopter crashed, killing his wife, two passengers and two pilots. News24’s sister publication Rapport reported on Chivayo in May this year after he joined SA President Cyril Ramaphosa on a helicopter flight in Zimbabwe. The Presidency subsequently denied that Ramaphosa was aware that Chivayo was under investigation in SA. Chivayo’s Johannesburg-based company, Ren-Form CC, was previously implicated in money laundering in a report by the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC). Ren-Form CC received R1.1bn from the Zimbabwean Government to supply, among other things, ballot papers for the 2023 election. News24 reports that R800m was immediately transferred to other bank accounts belonging to Chivayo, who was regarded as a loyal Zanu-PF supporter. According to reports by Open Secrets and Daily Maverick, the Zimbabwean Department of Finance transferred a further R157m to Chivayo’s other SA-registered company, Edenbreeze. While the FIC raised the alarm about the rapid movement of funds between bank accounts, investigations by Zimbabwean media exposed further fraud in the procurement arrangements for the 2023 election.

News24 notes that the Zimbabwean Government paid R23m for a computer server that would normally cost R90 000. The commission also paid nearly R69 000 per portable toilet, which would otherwise have cost R10 000. The FIC shared the full report with the Hawks, Crime Intelligence, the Zimbabwean Financial Intelligence Unit and the South African Revenue Services. At the time of his death, he was embroiled in a string of legal cases – among them a dispute with his former wife, Louise Sonja Madzikanda, who in April this year obtained a court order in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) to freeze his assets and bank accounts in SA over a maintenance dispute.