South Africa’s FIC: South African printing firm paid politically connected Zimbabwean agent R800m

A photo posted to Wicknell Chivayo’s Instagram page in April 2024 shows him with Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

By Nick Donovan and Michael Marchant

8 Apr 2025

Financial regulators are probing a Johannesburg printing company for possible money laundering offences linked to a kickback scandal in Zimbabwe.

Last year, an article by The Sentry and Open Secrets in Daily Maverick uncovered how the firm Ren-Form supplied overpriced election materials to Zimbabwe in partnership with Wicknell Chivayo, a politically connected tenderpreneur accused of making payments to mystery officials in Harare. Zimbabwe’s Anti-Corruption Commission launched an investigation after The NewsHawks newspaper revealed that Ren-Form had invoiced the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) R23-million for a server that normally costs R90,000, and charged R68,700 for portable toilets which retail for about R10,000 per unit. Chivayo was recorded discussing the sharing of the proceeds of the ZEC tender with Zimbabwean officials, referred to by their initials or code names.

When asked at the time whether Ren-Form paid Chivayo, the company’s sales director, Jean-Pierre du Sart, said: “He’s one of our agents over there, so there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Ren-Form in the Democratic Republic of Congo. From left: Mr Jean-Pier du Sart (Ren-Form Sales Director), Mr Tommy du Sart (Ren-Form CEO), John Ginzanza (Ren-Form BDO). (Photo: Supplied)

Now, a leaked investigation report sent from South Africa’s Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) to its counterpart in Zimbabwe has uncovered just how much the ZEC paid Ren-Form and how much the printing firm, in turn, paid its agent: “Ren-Form received over R1 billion from the Zimbabwe Ministry of Finance and Economic development. More than R800-million was transferred to the business bank accounts of Wicknell Chivayo.”

The FIC report analysed bank accounts belonging to Ren-Form and Chivayo, finding that Chivayo’s businesses frequently transferred money on to his personal accounts.

A photo posted to Wicknell Chivayo’s Instagram page in April 2024 shows him with Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Chivayo is a larger-than-life socialite often seen in President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s company. In leaked audio, Chivayo claimed that the president calls him “my son.” After the scandal first broke, amid speculation about which officials were being discussed receiving payments, Chivayo said the recordings were faked and apologised to Mnangagwa, ZEC chair Justice Priscilla Chigumba and other officials for creating the “adverse impression” that their institutions “are involved in corruption or participate in illicit transactions”.

Chivayo is also known for a luxury fleet of cars, including some he has gifted to politically connected individuals in Zimbabwe. The FIC report identified R36.5-million in payments from Chivayo’s Standard Bank account between January 2023 and September 2024 that “appear to be payments towards car purchases”.

The revelation that eight in ten rands sent to Ren-Form by the Zimbabwean government were passed on to Chivayo’s business bank accounts will raise new questions about the purpose of those commission payments. The leaked investigation, originally obtained by Zimbabwean media outlet ZimLive, names some of the recipients of Chivayo’s funds. They include entities controlled by businessmen allegedly linked to the remittance payment industry in Zimbabwe, suggesting some of those funds may have found their way back to Harare.

The report also shows how, in addition to paying Ren-Form, Zimbabwe’s Finance Ministry also paid R157-million directly to Chivayo’s South African-registered firm, Edenbreeze. These payments occurred in July and September 2024, after the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission announced its investigation. That probe has apparently stalled.

The FIC report concluded that “criminal activity cannot be ruled out” and urged its Zimbabwean counterpart to commence investigations. It also confirmed that it had shared the report with South Africa’s priority crimes unit (the Hawks), Crime Intelligence and the South African Revenue Service (Sars).

Ren-Form denied allegations of any impropriety, stating that the award of the contract by the ZEC was lawful, and promised to cooperate with the investigations in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Wicknell Chivayo has previously dismissed leaked material as fake. When asked for comment on the FIC report, he claimed he was not involved in the supply of goods and services to the ZEC, and said any subcontracting relationship his companies may have had with Ren-Form were subject to commercial confidentiality. Chivayo denied any payments made by him or his businesses were kickbacks and said, “the assumption that the size of or nature of a payment implies this is both legally untenable and analytically flawed”.

When contacted, ZEC chairperson Justice Chigumba said that questions about tendering should be directed to the ZEC’s management, who did not reply to further requests for comment. The ZEC has previously denied any wrongdoing. DM

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

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