In a recent report in the Sunday Times (of London) John Swain wrote that at the centre of Zanu-PF's operation to seize control of the lucrative Chiadzwa diamond fields in Zimbabwe, was the Minister of Mines, Obert Mpofu. John V Austin, a former Harare customs officer knew and worked with Mpofu in the 1980s. This is his portrait of the man. - Editor

OBERT MOSES MPOFU (MP) born 12 OCT 1951:  Currently - Minister of Mines,  Zimbabwe

Soon after independence in 1980, the Zimbabwe ZANU government set about racially transforming the management structure of the country. The Central Intelligence Organisation  (CIO), defence forces, police and prisons were first, closely followed by the civil service.

 It was clear from the outset that the new government was not only guerrilla-group partisan in nature, but also factional within those groupings. The Customs Department seemed to have had inserted into it various factional cadres. Some that I am aware of include ENOS NKALA (first Minister of Finance), the late DR HERBERT USHEWOKUNZE (of various ministries including State Security, Health, Transport) and EMMERSON  DUMBUDZO MNANGAGWA (of various ministries but including State Security, then Justice, during our woes).

The upper echelon cadre deployees were inserted at Customs Prefect level (a made-up grade as a sort open field Assistant Secretary cadet, or Customs equivalent hybrid Principal Examining Officer/Collector 2) for fast-tracking into senior management. The latter grade operated at the level of senior supervisory or assistant/acting manager.

The abilities of these Customs Prefect deployees varied and quite a good few had the makings of excellent career Customs & Excise managers. Almost all seemed to operate however under an unofficial dual chain of command, and certainly a few seemed to have some sort of secondary income. Obert Mpofu was one of these in the upper echelon of ZANU appointees.

Others in Harare included Alex Mavunga, Jephat Mujuru, William or Wiridzai Kwedza, George W T Mhiribidi, Cde A E Makonyonga and Israel Kapfumvuti. Direrctorship appointees to Customs Head Office included Rangarirayi James Munyaradzi (Deputy DG - later DG), Winston B Matabela (D-Excise, if I remember correctly),  Cde T H Mudzi (also at Director level) and Liberty Masilela (a Collector 1).

It seems to my colleague Neil Harper and me that Mpofu and Kapfumvuti were Mnangagwa deployees within the department from the outset, whilst Mujuru was a General Rex Nhongo deployee. (Nhongo later reverted to his real name Solomon Tapfumenayi Mujuru , after becoming Commander of the new, unified Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) ).

Neil Harper was replaced as Collector Mutare, by Jeph Mujuru, whereafter the unending problems of smuggling antics of the ZNA [Zimbabwe National Army] miraculously appeared to have ceased under Jeph Mujuru. Neil was promoted to Head of Harare Province, where I was already serving as 2 i/c to Chris Noble. (Chris was transferred to HQ as a second Deputy DG with James Munyaradzi, both under Don Haley as DG).  Alex Mavunga was transferred as Director Beitbridge and was considered one of the more promising of the direct ZANU appointees.

Kapfumvuti went to i/c Chirundu, during the days when Mnangagwa was known to travel the route north on undisclosed business in the Democratic Republic of Congo (yes, even then).

Mpofu was transferred to Harare Airport Operations, and in 1984 was promoted as senior manager there (Collector 1 promotion, 18 January 1984). Neil Harper opposed Mpofu's posting as Collector i/c Harare Airport on the grounds of inexperience, and urged that he be closely supervised. He was overruled by the Deputy DG, Ranga James Munyaradzi, himself a recent political appointee.

By this time Neil Harper was i/c Harare Province as Assitant Controller (now titled Director) and I continued as his 2 i/c. When Harper was later transferred to Director of the Investigations Branch in HQ, I was promoted to take over Directing Harare Province, Mpofu was transferred in from the Airport as my 2i/c (understudy), and Mhiribidi took over i/c Airport Operations, which was a satellite of and reported to Harare Province (my office).

From records I still have or have seen, I can confirm that OBERT MOSES MPOFU  (d.o.b. 12 October 1951 ):-

- Joined Customs as a Prefect on 02 Aug 1982 .
- Promoted to Collector 1 on 18 Jan 1984 .
- Left Customs to stand as an MP for ZANU in Tjolotjo circa July 1985.
- Resigned from Customs following 1985 election results.

Other information learned from Mpofu himself (or incidents involving him) during his employment in Customs as one of my underling senior managers:-

- With Kwedza, he would question the seizure by the department of "racist apartheid BMWs/Mercs". These luxury vehicles had been stolen in South Africa and had been seized in Zimbabwe by Customs and Excise in the normal course of duty. When I pointed out the luxury cars were simply stolen and smuggled contraband and that customs were duty bound to seize them, and that motor cars were neither racist nor apartheid-minded - they were just cars - he and Kwedza seemed unconvinced; so the matter was raised more than once. He seemed to be in disagreement that we were doing this as a normal part of our work.

- When he was i/c Harare Airports, I happened to visit the international airport one weekend and learned from the Balkan Airlines station manager that Mpofu and his wife were in Sofia for the weekend (with their air tickets as compliments from Balkan Airlines; Bulgaria was then still a Soviet-controlled Communist state). This was forbidden in terms of both government law and departmental anti-corruption rules, unless specifically pre-authorised from higher up (and these were never authorised simply for jollies or freebees).

I knew of no such authorisation and awaited his return to confront him about it, as his superior. At about 6am on the Sunday return from Sofia , the Balkan rep must have told him of my visit and of my knowledge of the trip, whereupon Mpofu phoned me at home from the airport Customs Office and proceeded to tell ME off. I had to stop him and remind him that he was talking to his superior and that it was I who required a written report from him.

I never did get the required report, save for advice that it had been dealt with "satisfactorily" above my head. In hindsight, there is no doubt in my mind now that Mpofu's time in the Customs Department had nothing to do with grooming for a fast-track Customs career, but everything to do with a tour of duty under a subversive scheme of cadre deployment.

- He told me he had the guerilla rank equivalent of Major, but I could detect in him no real military bearing, nor ability. (I myself was a Corps of Engineers Territorial Army officer with the rank of Captain). When he stood as a candidate as MP for Tjolotjo in the 1985 elections he was issued by the Central Intelligence Organisation with a 9mm Togarev pistol. I then gave him a crash course on how to operate and use this pistol, in his office, in Customs Angwa St/South Avenue . He seemed clearly awkward with firearms.

- He said he had spent time in Zambia  and Tanzania and had had tertiary education in India during the liberation war, obtaining a degree or diploma in journalism. I think he may have studied abroad with Tommy Sithole, then Editor of The Herald in Harare . His big mate from liberation days was Sithole. He was also buddies with the first black Chief of Protocol, Peter Chanetsa. Tommy Sithole was a qualified private pilot and Obert would recount tales of the three of them taking off from bush airstrips in Tanzania ... wondering if the plane would actually lift off with Chanetsa (who was overweight) on board. 

- Mpofu's sponsor in ZANU/ZANLA/Government was and remains the most powerful security figure in the regime, Emmerson Mnangagwa. These were the days when Mnangagwa was a shadowy non-person not well known in the new Zimbabwean politics - still a quiet, behind-the-scenes dealer, unknown to most whites including me. Therefore it was of some surprise to me when Mpofu insisted that Mnangagwa was VERY powerful in Zim politics - going so far as to assure me, even then, that Mnangagwa was second only to Mugabe. This was in a conversation he had with me only once, and in very hushed conspiratorial tones. I was to learn fairly soon thereafter (via my detention with Neil Harper in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison) how right he was. In hindsight, I suspect that the conversation could well have been an early veiled attempt at cautioning me, and Harper.

Around this time too I was to learn from Mpofu that his sponsorship in ZANU-PF via Mnangagwa was linked to a familial relationship, in that they were married to sisters. I have since recently heard that Mnangagwa married Josiah Tongogara's sister, so, who knows. Certainly, there is no doubt in my mind now that Mpofu and Mnangawa bat for the same team and always have. This would make sense of the rumours of Mnangagwa's and Mpofu's aspirations for future top positions in the ZANU-PF Praesidium.

- Soon after leaving Customs, Mpofu was appointed a Defence Forces Commissioner and later, I understand, a Public Services Commissioner. When his appointment to the Armed Services and Civil Service Commissions was announced in The Herald newspaper, it listed his qualifications that were appropriate for these appointments. These qualifications had not been disclosed on his earlier appointment to the Customs Department.

- Mpofu has also been a Governor - Matabeleland North, presumably because as an Mpofu he is a Matabele as well as being ZANU-connected. The Ndebele detainees with us in Chikurubi Prison all hated him. In July 1986 most of the Ndebele detainees were from the Tjolotjo area of Matabeleland (including the entire staff of the Tjolotjo school) and had campaigned against Mpofu in the 1985 general election.

- I was aware that soon after leaving Customs, he was politically appointed to the board/management of the Treger Group. (I had believed it a means to watch over the ZANU investment in the Treger Group whilst putting him on a payroll to replace his lost Customs & Excise income). Interestingly, his own web-based CV on http://www.whoswhosa.co.za/user/3566 shows him being employed in very high office in the Treger Group precisely during the time he was employed by the Customs Department. Moreover, the CV doesn't mention his Customs service whatsoever. Taking the CV at face value, it reveals a further civil service misdemeanour, as dual employment was not permitted.

- Furthermore, Mpofu's CV notes a claim to a BComm from Delhi India , and an MBA from Mannin UK . The only tertiary qualification I was ever aware of - from sight of his personnel file - was his unremarkable qualification in journalism (also from Delhi , I think). A Google search under "MANNIN DEGREES" points only to possibilities of "fake qualifications". Personally, I would have no interest to research the validity of any of Mpofu's academic qualifications any further; SAVE ONLY in the unlikely event I were to be forced to consider employing him....

- Moreover, that CV shows him as "Provincial Youth Chair: ZAPU Southern" and "Owner of Green Haven & other companies". I must say, I am surprised to see him claim to be an office bearer in ZAPU. One of our co-detainees in Chikurubi, ZAPU General DUMISO DABENGWA, would be able to verify the veracity of this. On "Green Haven" there is no Google result and I wonder what sort of business it does; ditto the names and type of business of his "other companies".

In conclusion, I can say that the current and historical shenanigans displayed by this man and his associates come as no surprise to me. I believe him to be devious in the extreme and of modest to low investable long-term managerial ability, due in large measure to a complete lack of integrity, though I do not regard him as in any way stupid or incapable.

That Mpofu warrants listing on the Zimbabwe short list of top officials enjoying western targeted sanctions is in itself an excellent indicator of this man's chosen career path. His success in his political career is partly measurable by the vast pile of his visible onshore wealth of assets within Zimbabwe generally and at  Bulawayo , Hwange, and  Victoria Falls in particular.

It would be wise to rank him higher up the ZANU dung heap than he might publicly lay claim to. I would now assume him to have been a top Mnangagwa protege all along, and certainly from well before majority rule in 1980.

He claimed to be teetotal when I knew him, and I have no reason to doubt this.

John V Austin (Director - retired)
Former Head, Harare Customs & Excise
CHIKURUBI DETAINEE (WITHOUT CHARGE),  HARARE ,  1986 - 1988

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