KEN Vincent Grant-Cocker, a British investor who was deported in May this year for not regularising his stay in Zimbabwe, has appealed to President Emmerson Mnangagwa to help him return to the southern African country.
The Briton, who claims he wanted to bring multi-billion dollar infrastructure development investments into Zimbabwe before he was ejected, said he resorted to engaging the leader after failing to get responses from various ministers.
“Over the past four months, I have written, in some detail, to the Minister of Home Affairs regarding the matter. I wrote to the minister on the 26th of May, the 30th of May, 6th of June and finally on August 28 2018. To date, I have not had a response or even the courtesy of an acknowledgment. According to my information, no action has been taken against the officers and directors of the cartel that runs the immigration department for its personal benefit,” he said in a September 2018 letter addressed to Mnangagwa and seen by The Financial Gazette.
“In addition to writing to the minister, I previously, some six months ago, contacted the Zimbabwe anti-corruption office regarding these officials and again to date nothing appears to have happened, despite repeated reminders via WhatsApp messages,” he added.
The latest development comes at a time United Kingdom-based investment firm 360° Time World Development has indicated to government that it would halt its intended project in Zimbabwe, if its point man — Grant-Coker — is not allowed to return to Zimbabwe.
360° Time World Development, through its subsidiary 55°Time, is on a mission to position and develop 24 Timepiece Ultra Luxury Towers in 24 leading cities of the world.
The company plans to construct an iconic Tower plaza, a new tourist city in Victoria Falls, an offshore financial centre and a new all-purpose marina on Lake Kariba and “these, together with ancillary infrastructure developments, will bring massive investment into Zimbabwe that will exceed $100 billion over the next 5-7 years”.
Grant-Coker said arising out of the proposals for Victoria Falls were proposals for the revamping of waste management in Zimbabwe which involved a major international company responsible for 40 percent of the waste management in the United Kingdom.
“Their representative visited Chinhoyi, Chitungwiza and Harare sewage facilities. Following these visits, I wrote to the various councils and to Minister (July) Moyo at local government. Needless to say, I got no response or even acknowledgment.
“The irony of all these proposals is that the billions of inward investment generated would have cost Zimbabwe nothing; they were self-financing vehicles, which would have no effect on Zimbabwe’s integrity or indebtness, which is quite the opposite of what is currently happening in Zambia and its problems with the Chinese taking over its infrastructure,” he said in the missive.
He added that the draft contract for the Victoria Falls development submitted to the Tourism ministry included specific stipulations by investors that corruption would not be tolerated.
“The waste management proposals have been highlighted by the current cholera epidemic, the current sewage system leaves much to be desired. It suffers from lack of management and is starved of investment and modern technology which will do much to alleviate the problems. The plants we inspected were just not running, their equipment lying idle and in the case of Crowborough, sewage being barely treated before being distributed on the council farms.
“I would respectfully request and urge you/and your office investigate this matter as a matter of some urgency and ensure that immediate and necessary action is taken to clear out the cancer of corruption in the immigration dept and that the officers concerned are stripped of all benefits, convicted and imprisoned for their crimes. This would be a clear sign to potential investors that action is being taken and that corruption will not be tolerated at any level,” the Briton said.
“I… respectively ask that my illegal prohibition order be immediately lifted in order that I can return to my family. Everything I have is in Zimbabwe, I cannot access my assets or even draw money,” Grant-Coker said.
Fingaz