By Pieter Ziegler
President Mnangagwa’s Belarussian ally Alexander Zingman is set to benefit massively as Bulawayo City Council is set to sign a US$7,5 million deal for vehicles and equipment.
The equipment will be paid for with funds from devolution allocations.
Zingman orchetrated a shady agreement under which the sons of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and his right-hand man, Viktor Sheiman, got a deal for suspicious gold mining deals in Zimbabwe.
The information came from the leaked documents in the Pandora papers.
The company, Zim Goldfields, obtained a 5-year permit in May 2018 to prospect for gold on nearly 55,000 hectares in three locations.
These include a site along the Mutare river, which runs through Penhalonga, on the Mozambique / Zimbabwe border.
In a move clearly engineered to repay Zingman, Bulawayo, through the Town Clerk Christopher Dube, is pushing business towards his Dubai based company AFTRADE DMCC.
Laying The Ground
Dube in August 2024 visited Minsk in Belarus where a Memorandum of Agreement was signed with AFTRADE DMCC.
The delegation was led by the Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution Judith Ncube.
Minutes from the BCC show how the arrangement is nearly complete.
“The department of works formally requested authority for the procurement of critical plant and equipment from Belarus.
“(They will use) the city’s allocation of the 2025 devolution funds, leveraging on the existing Zimbabwe — Belarus government to government memorandum of understanding for trade and economic co-operation.”
“The city’s 2025 devolution allocation amounted to ZiG176 353 600.
“Utilising the devolution funds for the procurement would not only ensure that council adhered to budgetary allocations but also facilitate a more efficient and streamlined process leveraging the existing agreement with the Belarusian government.
It was believed that these pieces of equipment would benefit all wards, city wide.
”BCC has already obtained an invoice amounting to US$7,5 million from AFTRADE DMCC.
Captured State Institutions
Aftrade DMCC, owned by Zingman, supplies Belarusian heavy plant equipment made in Belarus to Africa.
The company is the official agents for MAZ and Bobruiskagromash equipment.
At international exhibitions it represents the interests of such Belarus enterprises such as Amkodor, BelAZ, MTZ, Gomselmash, Lidselmash and Lidagroprommash.
The Mnangagwa government has been cultivating its relationship with Belarus more and more lately.
Another Belarus company, Sohra Overseas FZE, reportedly sold a large batch of BelAZ dump trucks to the Chinese/Zimbabwe military who exploited the Marange diamond fields in Chiadzwa.
Sohra Overseas FZE with the state-owned military supplier Belspetsvneshtekhnika has also sold military equipment through their defence joint-venture BSZT-New technologies.
Zingman has been Zimbabwe’s honorary consul in Belarus since 2019.
However, his multiple deals with Zimbabwe have often bordered on the shady and criminal.
Mining Deals
The mining deal which he brokered has itself been mired in controversy as it later emerged to be private instead of between governments.
In 2019 initial reports stated a mining deal had been agreed as a collaboration between Belarus and Zimbabwe.
Sheiman said it was intended to make “profit for Belarus.”
State media reported that Sheiman and Winston Chitando, Minister of Mines and Mining Development, agreed to establish a joint mining company called Zim Goldfields.
Among targets was the increase of trade between the two countries to reach $500 million by 2019 and by 2020 – $1 billion.
“Nobody is going to cooperate for free.
“If they have no money, they are ready to pay with minerals. It suits us” Victor Sheiman said.
However, according to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) the mining deal mysteriously changed into private gold-mining deal between Sergei Sheiman and other Belarusians.
This was done through alleged offshore accounts in which the Belarus government had no stake and the Zimbabwe government had only a 30% minority stake through ZMDC.
