Zimbabwe Govt breaks silence over allegations of gold smuggling, money laundering

Zimbabwe government has finally broken the silence around allegations of gold smuggling and money laundering exposed in an Al-Jazeera documentary last month, saying that it will launch an inquiry into the claims.

In a four-part documentary released on March 23rd, the news network shows individuals allegedly affiliated with Zimbabwean government smuggling gold to evade western sanctions.

“Government takes the allegations raised in the documentary seriously, and has directed relevant organs to institute investigations into the issues raised,” Information Minister and Publicity Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said in a statement in the capital, Harare, on Tuesday.

“Any person found to have engaged in acts of corruption, fraud or any form of crime will face the full wrath of the law,” the government said in its first response to the broadcaster’s revelations.

Al-Jazeera has alleged that the smuggling took place with the knowledge of the government and the involvement of the nation’s central bank. The weekly screening of the four-part documentary has caused a buzz on social media.

Prior to it being aired, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe said snippets of the documentary it had watched were “sensationally wild, false and malicious.”

It said alleged smuggling kingpins, secretly filmed, don’t represent the central bank.

The government is committed to upholding domestic and international law, including those relating to financial transactions, and the trade in gold and other precious metals, Mutsvangwa said