Headline:
Zimbabwe Could Have Bought Over 15 B2 Bombers With Funds Lost to Tagwirei’s Empire After 2017 Coup
By Farai D Hove | Analysis |
Harare – June 23, 2025
Zimbabwe could have purchased more than 15 state-of-the-art U.S.-manufactured B-2 Spirit stealth bombers with the USD32 billion that vanished through opaque deals involving controversial businessman Kudakwashe Tagwirei’s companies within a year after the November 2017 military coup that removed Robert Mugabe.
The revelation casts a stark light on the scale of looting that followed what was billed as a “military-assisted transition” but quickly turned into a looting spree under the new Emmerson Mnangagwa administration. Instead of stabilizing the economy, billions were siphoned off under murky transactions and command projects awarded to Tagwirei-linked firms.
Missing Billions: A Parliamentary Alarm
In February 2019, then Public Accounts Committee chairperson, opposition legislator Tendai Biti, raised the alarm during a televised session of Parliament, exposing what he described as the “disappearance of unprecedented amounts of public funds.”
“On the 27th of December 2017, one month after the coup, USD2.7 billion suddenly came direct from the Ministry of Finance; where it went is not known. There is neither a voucher for it, nor a single bank statement to account for it,” Biti stated.
Just three months later, in March 2018, another USD3.2 billion was siphoned from state coffers in what Biti described as a “financial black hole.”
“There is no voucher, no invoice, neither is there any paper trail. There is nothing you can put a finger to,” he said.
These amounts, according to Biti and independent audits, formed part of a broader $32 billion hemorrhage from the fiscus by the end of 2018—mostly channelled through companies and banks linked to Tagwirei, who had emerged as the de facto economic tsar post-coup.
What $32 Billion Could Buy: A Military Comparison
For perspective, each B-2 bomber, built by Northrop Grumman, costs approximately USD2.1 billion including maintenance and support costs. With USD32 billion, Zimbabwe could have acquired at least 15 of the world’s most advanced bombers—aircraft so powerful they are only possessed by the United States Air Force due to their unmatched stealth and strike capabilities.
While no sane nation prioritizes such extravagant defense acquisitions in peacetime, the comparison underscores the astronomical scale of the plunder: money enough to revolutionize national infrastructure, fund education for generations, or industrialize the entire SADC region—gone in under 12 months.
Tagwirei’s Empire: No Accountability, No Trail
The bulk of the missing funds were funneled through opaque deals linked to Tagwirei’s Sakunda Holdings and associated shell companies. These included so-called “Command Agriculture” programs, fuel import subsidies, and currency arbitrage schemes enabled by Reserve Bank support.
Investigations by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) and the Auditor General were repeatedly blocked, and to date, no single prosecution has been made over the transactions.
Tagwirei has denied any wrongdoing and has not been convicted of any crime. However, he remains on U.S. sanctions lists under the Global Magnitsky Act, cited for “grand corruption, human rights abuses, and the undermining of Zimbabwe’s democratic institutions.”
A Nation Robbed in Broad Daylight
Economists say the plunder had lasting consequences: record inflation, widespread poverty, infrastructure collapse, and a currency in freefall. More importantly, it established a precedent for institutionalized impunity.
“We saw what looked like a liberation celebration become a gold rush for those in power,” said economist Godfrey Kanyenze. “This was not just theft—it was betrayal.”
The figures presented by Biti remain unchallenged in Parliament, with successive finance ministers failing to table documentation accounting for the money.
While some regimes misuse public funds, the Zimbabwe case has entered infamy for the speed and scale at which national wealth was liquidated.
In a single year, Zimbabwe lost the equivalent of 15 B-2 bombers, hundreds of hospitals, thousands of schools, and a decade’s worth of economic development—a post-coup bonanza that history will remember not as liberation, but as legalized looting.
For more on the post-2017 public finance scandals and the collapse of state accountability, visit our investigative archive.