Correspondent|PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has said that his top government officials are demanding bribes from investors who want to meet him, with one aide demanding R5 million to fix a meeting.

This mirrors the claim made by former leader Robert Mugabe in December 2012. Mugabe was left fuming after former South African president Thabo Mbeki told him and provided evidence senior Cabinet ministers had demanded a US$10 million bribe to facilitate a US$1 billion investment by African National Congress (ANC)-linked investors.

President Mnangagwa made the stunning disclosure while addressing central committee members on Wednesday.

“I have introduced the ‘Zimbabwe is open for business’ policy and it has been attractive, informing investors that we have opened up the country for business and changed on the way we were doing our things,” Mnangagwa said.

“This has generated interest among investors. They have been coming, wanting to do business in the country, but other people are now asking huge amounts of money from them to facilitate meetings with the President and ministers.”

He added: “Some people say to the investors, ‘before I take you to the President or minister, pay me some money’. I have been told that one investor was charged R5 million to come see me.”

“The investor was told that three quarters of the money would go to the President and the (fourth) quarter will be given to the person who will fix the meeting. When I eventually met the investor in South Africa, he told me that he had been asked to pay R5 million to meet me. Corruption, corruption, corruption, down with corruption!” Mnangagwa barked.

In 2012, Thabo Mbeki, whose wife Zanele is involved in business, told Mugabe during Zimbabwe’s Diamond Conference in Victoria Falls from he was shocked by ministers who tried to extort US$10 million from ANC-connected businesspeople who wanted to pour a US$1 billion investment in diamond mining and other areas.

After getting the evidence from Mbeki of which ministers were demanding bribes, Mugabe, irked and disappointed by his appointees, menacingly hinted on the issue at a Zanu PF conference.

“I was getting complaints from outside. Former South African president Thabo Mbeki was saying some of their people in the ANC wanted to come intending to do business and this is what they have been told: ‘If you want to do this business, you bring US$5 million and from that US$5 million we take US$1 million that we will take to the minister to give to the president’,” Mugabe said.

No-one was arrested for those charges.

President Mnangagwa has so far not hinted at whether the official who demanded kickbacks will is under investigation.

Zimbabwe is rated as one of the most corrupt on the planet, occupying 157th out of 180 countries in the 2017 ranking by watchdog Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.

Mnangagwa told ruling party officials that corruption was ravaging government and immediate action was needed to clean up the country’s investment climate.

“If you shun corruption, you will stay and stay with us in the party, but if you are corrupt, you will be fired,” he warned.

Mnangagwa took over power in a coup in November 2017 before winning the disputed July 30 election against opposition MDC leader, Nelson Chamisa who says the vote was stolen.

He set up an anti-corruption unit based in his office, but its credibility has been tainted by allegations that it targets Mnangagwa’s political foes, mostly members of the G40 faction aligned to Mugabe’s wife, Grace.

Mnangagwa has pledged to fight corruption in his “second republic”, and several former ministers who served under Mugabe have been charged with corruption.

Former Energy minister Samuel Undenge has been convicted of issuing a $12 650 contract without due tender to a company that did no work, and was sentenced to four years in prison. He has appealed both the conviction and the sentence.

Former ministers Supa Mandiwanzira, Walter Mzembi, Ignatius Chombo, David Parirenyatwa and Saviour Kasukuwere all have pending cases before the courts, in what analysts view as a crackdown on officials loyal to Mugabe.