South African company embroiled in R570m Zimbabwe corruption scandal

17 Jul 2024

A Johannesburg printing firm and its agent are being investigated by Zimbabwe’s anti-corruption authority for price gouging on election-related material and equipment.

Zimbabwe is no stranger to corruption. But the brazen nature of the R570-million scandal engulfing the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission (ZEC) has outraged the country. A Johannesburg printing firm and its agent, a larger-than-life tenderpreneur, are being investigated by Zimbabwe’s anti-corruption authority.

sa company zim corruption wicknell chivayo Wicknell Chivayo has gone viral on Zimbabwean social media after seemingly genuine audio clips circulated in which he discusses sharing the proceeds of the ZEC tender with his partners and senior officials, referred to by their initials or codenames. (Photo: Supplied)

Leaked documents suggest the printing firm, Ren-Form, inflated the price of ballot papers, biometric voter registration kits and portable toilets while its politically connected partner, Wicknell Chivayo, made payments to mystery officials. In one instance, Ren-Form invoiced the ZEC R23-million for a server that normally costs just R90,000.

‘Sir Wicknell’

Chivayo dubs himself “Sir Wicknell” on social media, frequently posting pictures of himself with President Emmerson Mnangagwa or posing in front of large piles of cash. While he has nine businesses in South Africa and had a brush with the law in 2011, Chivayo has largely flown under the radar in South Africa.

In Zimbabwe, however, he is notorious for his past conviction for money laundering, and his fleet of luxury cars, some of which he donates to Zanu-PF-supporting musicians.

sa company zim corruption wicknell chivayo Wicknell Chivayo’s fleet of cars. (Photo: Instagram)

Chivayo acted as agent for Ren-Form, a family-owned commercial printing company based in Selby, central Johannesburg. In the tender with the ZEC, Ren-Form branched out from just providing ballot papers into acting as a one-stop shop providing electronic equipment, hi-vis vests and gadgets to display voting results.

Chivayo’s former business partners, Mike Chimombe and Moses Mpofu, who felt cut out of the deal, accuse Ren-Form and Chivayo of inflating costs by up to 235%. The election body paid the South African printing company at least R570-million.

The NewsHawks, the Zimbabwean media outlet which broke the story, claims that the total paid to Ren-Form could be up to R1.8-billion ($100-million).

Chimombe and Mpofu’s claim is partly supported by leaked documents which show Ren-Form invoiced the ZEC R23-million for a central server that costs R90,000 online, and 2,000 non-flushing toilets priced at R68,700 each, which retail for about R10,000 per unit.

sa company zim corruption Ren-Form Johannesburg printing firm Ren-Form.(Photo: Google images)

Ren-Form also provided the ZEC with biometric voter registration (BVR) kits. In the original quote, Ren-Form quoted $5,000 per kit. Yet the BVR kits tripled in price to nearly $16,000 by the time of the final invoice just a few weeks later. Similar BVR kits cost $3,600 per unit when bought by the United Nations Development Programme for the 2021 elections in Honduras.

The quality and price of the individual components, such as a fingerprint scanner, in a particular BVR “suitcase” can change. Someone familiar with this specific ZEC tender claimed that the hardware did not change in this case, but could not rule out software costs changing between Ren-Form’s first quote to the final invoiced amount.

We asked Ren-Form to explain. The company’s sales director, Jean-Pierre du Sart, called all the allegations false and said, “In any project there’s changes,” when asked the reason for the price increases. While Ren-Form did not dispute the authenticity of the invoices and other financial records, Chivayo says the leaked documents are fakes.

zim corruption

The jilted business partners — Chimombe and Mpofu — claim that as soon as Zimbabwe paid Ren-Form, the printer transferred much of the funds to one of Chivayo’s South African companies, Intratrek. When asked if Ren-Form paid Chivayo, Du Sart said, “He’s one of our agents over there, so there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Mnangagwa’s ‘son’?

Chivayo has gone viral on Zimbabwean social media after seemingly genuine audio clips circulated in which he discusses sharing the proceeds of the ZEC tender with his partners and senior officials, referred to by their initials or codenames. In one voice note, Chivayo claims Mnangagwa calls him “my son”, prompting the president’s spokesperson to condemn “name-dropping”.

Chivayo has denied that it was his voice on the clips and apologised to Mnangagwa, spy boss Isaac Moyo and ZEC chair Justice Priscilla Chigumba for creating the “adverse impression” that their institutions “are involved in corruption or participate in illicit transactions”.

It is possible some of Chivayo’s generosity in handing out luxury cars was financed from the ZEC tender. In May 2023, just a month after the Zimbabwean finance ministry instructed the central bank to pay Ren-Form for the BVR kits, Chivayo had two white Rolls-Royce cars flown into Harare from Europe and a luxury Mercedes and Range Rover delivered from South Africa.

Investigations and denials

The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission has since opened an investigation and is seeking to interview Chivayo. Chimombe and Mpofu have been arrested as part of a separate investigation into the alleged failure to deliver on a contract for the presidential goat scheme, in which animals were supposed to be provided to poorer rural households.

Ren-Form denies any wrongdoing including inflating prices to pay bribes, and said it is unable to provide specific details about the tender due to confidentiality clauses in its contract with the ZEC. The printing firm declined to provide further responses, citing ongoing investigations by law enforcement agencies.

Chivayo did not respond to a request for comment. Previously, Chivayo described the leaked voice notes and messages as fakes, and said he was under a sustained character attack from Chimombe and Mpofu, whom he described as “briefcase businessmen.”

The ZEC denied doing business directly with Chivayo, Chimombe or Mpofu and said that all procurement was above board. DM

Nick Donovan is a senior investigator at The Sentry. Michael Marchant is head of investigations at Open Secrets.

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‘Sir Wicknell’