Zimbabwe extends SA businessman's 'duty-free' privilege
Publish date: 03 February 2025
Issue Number: 1111
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: General
African Chrome Fields (ACF), whose managing director is SA businessman Zunaid Moti, has been granted a national project status extension in Zimbabwe, allowing the entity to import diesel worth more than R400m duty-free, according to News24. The Moti Group's operations in Zimbabwe and Moti's alleged closeness to leading government figures there, including President Emmerson Mnangagwa and retired army general Constantino Chiwenga, have previously come under scrutiny. According to an investigation by amaBhungane, 'The Moti Files', in 2023, a trove of leaked internal documents showed Moti had close ties with the pair and turned to them for help after being arrested in Germany in 2018 through a ‘Red Notice’. But Moti reportedly rejected any suggestion that he, or the Moti Group's ACF, received undue or improper benefits because of their relationship with Zimbabwe's Government. In a Government Gazette notice, Zimbabwe's Minister of Finance, Economic Development & Investment Promotion, Mthuli Ncube, said the import duty waiver would run from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2026. Ncube said the facility falls under ‘power generation projects’ and ACF can bring in fuel amounting to 13.5m litres of diesel. Since 2016, ACF has been importing fuel duty-free under the same facility. Before the extended waiver, ACF had imported 12m litres duty-free.