The patrons who make the deals about their countries
The exploitative stance taken by many multinationals in African countries has often been highlighted. Multiple reports expose how they appropriate natural wealth on the cheap, pollute communities and exploit workers. But the facilitation of this all by powerful African political elites has remained in the shadows.
In Zambia, an entire political class is involved. In Mozambique, it still helps to know a general. The DRC has bred functionaries who guide investors to the richest prospecting. In The Gambia, the connected few build on protected wetlands, risking the capital’s survival. In Zimbabwe, natural wealth lies in the hands of the president and his loyalists.
Anonymous companies
“You can find out the ownership of these anonymous companies, but it’s risky,” a mining expert cautioned Zimbabwean ZAM reporter Mukudzei Madenyika at the start of this investigation. “Because most of these will end up linked to the president.” In Lusaka, Charles Mafa has been threatened and had his notebook torn by people claiming that they are “very close” to the ruling party and a certain ambassador, while Mozambique’s Estacio Valoi has often had run-ins with the military in his country, who recently threatened to “throw (him) on the firewood” for asking around in forest areas where a general “helps” an illegal tree-logging company “with documents.”
“Selfish politicians and their agents constantly interfere”
Safe or not, citizens in all five countries investigated remain far from sharing in their vast natural wealth—whether in minerals, wetlands, sea life, or forests. In the private sector, the blame is often pinned on vague ‘corruption’ with claims like “this is how business is done in Africa.” But as this ZAM investigation shows, it’s not cultural—it’s a systemic patronage network. As one former Zambian official put it, a class of “selfish politicians and their agents” routinely hijack mining licenses for themselves or their business partners. In places like Zimbabwe, citizens can’t even check who owns what—there is no functioning company registry.
Intermediaries
As a result, villagers in mineral-rich areas often face pollution and exploitation instead of prosperity. In one case investigated by Mafa, an artisanal mining group in Zambia was pushed out by well-connected outsiders who secured a competing license. In Mozambique, a member of the ruling party-aligned business confederation told Estacio Valoi the group serves as an ‘intermediary’ between foreign companies and high-ranking officials. Meanwhile, much of the mining sector remains under the influence of generals linked to the Association of Former Combatants (ZAM did an earlier investigation into the licenses for the generals).
A business network of one man
Wealth access is even more centralized in Zimbabwe—ironically, a self-proclaimed socialist state—where all mining rights are granted by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s office. Investigating the country’s booming lithium sector, Mukudzei Madenyika and ZAM found that nearly all local shareholders in foreign mining ventures are tied to one man: billionaire ruling party benefactor and presidential investment advisor Kudakwashe Tagwirei. Major Chinese investors have all partnered, directly or indirectly, with his Kuvimba Mining House (1).
“Chiefs and local party bosses are bribed to keep quiet”
Local sources in communities visited by Madenyika stated that, despite promises of development and ample jobs from the new lithium projects, these had failed to materialize. Several complained of losing land and farms and of water pollution. The community sources also said they were “muzzled” by local leaders, whom they believed were “benefiting” from “a lot of dirty money changing hands, because the villagers have protested before, but we are powerless and lack knowledge on how to fight these people.”
ZANU PF business mogul Tagwirei has reportedly been positioned by Mnangagwa as a potential successor in the next elections, expected to be held in 2028.
Fair business becomes difficult
This transnational investigation exposes the challenges international and local anti-corruption efforts face in tackling resource exploitation in Africa’s postcolonial patronage states. How can even well-meaning multinationals trade fairly when local partners are politically connected elites with little concern for their own people?
Silent NGOs
In some of the countries investigated, even civil society has struggled to challenge exploitative business deals involving their own governments. In Zimbabwe, veteran NGO leaders in the resource sector asked not to be quoted or named. In Zambia, heads of two prominent, donor-funded transparency groups either avoided questions about political influence in mining or denied any major issues.
An environmentalist movement booked some success
In The Gambia, however, a large movement protesting illegal business development in the Tanbi Wetlands—which safeguard the capital, Banjul, against flooding, erosion, and rising sea levels—has booked some successes. The Gambian Ministry of Lands has ordered a suspension of all development activities in two areas within the wetlands, in response to what it described in its press statement at the time of the second moratorium in 2024 as “very troubling land transactions that pose a potential danger.” Though ZAM reporter Mariam Sankanu has found that corrupt land sales remain a threat, the environmentalist movement provides hope as a force to be reckoned with.
Hope for change
Changes may be afoot in Mozambique, too. According to ZAM’s Estacio Valoi, the fact that last year, the ruling Frelimo party was almost chased from power by a groundswell of popular anger has ensured that citizens now feel they can influence what happens with their wealth. “Communities are demanding direct local tax payments in mining areas. And people have been boycotting tolls since they found out that former president Chissano is a shareholder in the roads company. People on the ground are a driving force for change now. They are showing international investors that they should not do business with gangsters.” As a first result, Valoi describes how, under pressure from public outrage following his and others’ reports, key officials in the forestry department have been replaced recently, cutting off an illegal timber exporting network.
“Shift in power balance needed.”
In a comment, spokesperson Ilona Hartlief of the Netherlands-based SOMO Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations said that “many oil, gas and mining companies are deeply intertwined with exploitative systems. They help maintain and also profit from them, feeding and reinforcing corruption. Their business models are built on extraction, not accountability. These structures must be exposed, and the corporations that profit from them must be actively challenged. The international community has a responsibility to stand with affected communities and social movements to hold companies accountable. A shift in power balance is urgently needed.”
- As reported in Madenyika’s story, Tagwirei has consistently denied any association with the Kuvimba Mining House. However, Bloomberg reported in 2021 that “previously unreported documents, emails and WhatsApp messages seen by Bloomberg (…) show how, through a complex series of transactions, the mining assets that form the core of Kuvimba’s holdings were until recently owned by or tied to Kudakwashe Tagwirei.”
Sell Outs
This introductory story, along with the first and second country episodes published below, constitutes the initial instalment of our transnational Sell-Outs investigations conducted by a ZAM team across Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, the DRC, and the Gambia. The remaining country episodes will be published in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!
See the first instalments in this Transnational Investigation here
Zambia | A corrupt political class
Zimbabwe | All the president’s minerals
