Questions arise over Zimbabwean Wicknell Chivayo rubbing shoulders with African presidents

* Met Chakwera yesterday and is reported to have unfettered access to power, with his interactions with presidents including his own Emmerson Mnangagwa

* He has before met former Malawi President Peter Mutharika, Kenya’s William Ruto, Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu Hassan and late Edgar Lungu of Zambia

By Duncan Mlanjira

President Lazarus Chakwera is being advised to be extra wary of Zimbabwean Wicknell Chivayo, whom he has met yesterday, saying there is need to make serious background check on the man as questions are arising over his unfettered access to power.

According to our sources as well as international media reports , Chivayo is alleged  to have close links to Zimbabwe’s main political party, the ZANU PF and that he is suspected to be a front for politicians on Government tenders.

A Facebook account named ‘Sir Wicknell Chivayo Fans’ reports that having met Chakwera, he now “expands” what has been described as his “empire to Malawi” — that is followed by a comment, saying: “Wow, what an exciting development! Sir Wicknell Chivayo’s expansion into Malawi is a testament to his entrepreneurial spirit and vision.

“Meeting with President Lazarus Chakwera is a great opportunity for collaboration and growth. This could be a game-changer for Malawi’s economy and a win-win for both parties. Wishing Sir Wicknell and the people of Malawi all the best for this new venture!”

Another comment hinted that the partnership with Chivayo will assist Chakwera to “win [the September 16] elections” — with an emphasis; “trust me”.

A comment on a WhatsApp group of intellectuals observed that Chakwera and his administration’s team “are short of some critical skills like ‘background research’ in most things that they engage in. Check out Bridgin, butchery fertilisers scandals! For 5 years and no improvements, God help Malawi.

A report by trt.global/afrika — entitled ‘Wicknell Chivayo: Who is the Zimbabwean rubbing shoulders with presidents?’, published on June 24, 2025 — indicates that Chivayo “has unfettered access to power, with his interactions with the presidents of Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania often splashed on social media, but who is he, and what is he up to?”

The 42-year-old has also before met former Malawi President Peter Mutharika; Kenya’s William Ruto; Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni; Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu Hassan and late Edgar Lungu of Zambia.

It is reported that he “often flies private jets, shops at high-end stores, changes luxurious vehicles frequently, gifts people expensive presents, including cars and houses, and lives in a posh neighbourhood in the north of Zimbabwe’s capital Harare”.

“Chivayo says his main goal is to become a dollar-billionaire, and that money ‘buys happiness”, reports trt.global/afrika, adding Instagram page exhibits his luxurious lifestyle.

“According to him, ‘being rich causes a headache, citing dilemma over what to wear or drive from an expensive collection. But who exactly is Chivayo, whose Instagram page is a luxury exhibition?”

He has been researched that he was born in November 1982 in Harare, where he pursued primary and secondary education and that there is no publicly confirmed record of him pursuing college education.

On his Facebook page, he says he started off as a wage clerk of a bus company in Zimbabwe in 1997 and according to Zimbabwean media reports, Chivayo, thereafter, “joined the unregulated foreign exchange business in the capital Harare”.

“In 2004, he was sentenced to three years in prison for deceiving a South African national that he would deposit over US$100,000 in the South African’s account in exchange for US$46,000, though in South African rand currency. Chivayo served time at the Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare.

“In March 2011, Zimbabwe’s state-controlled newspaper, The Chronicle, reported that Chivayo had allegedly created fictitious websites, which unsuspecting clients believed could help them procure goods. According to The Chronicle, the websites would disappear upon receiving payments.

“Chivayo would make news headlines again not long thereafter — in September 2019, the former chairperson of the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC), Stanley Kazhanje, was jailed for three years for receiving US$10,000 from Chivayo’s company, Intratrek Zimbabwe.

“The trial established that in October 2015, ZPC, through Kazhanje, had given Chivayo’s company a US$183-million contract to construct a 100-megawatt solar station in Zimbabwe’s southwestern district of Gwanda.

“Some $1.2 million were paid up front. Harare Magistrate Hosea Mujaya established that Chivayo’s company did not fulfill the contractual obligation, but in January 2016 Chivayo gave Kazhanje US$10,000.

“Interestingly, a few years later when Chivayo’s firm sued for unlawful termination of a contractual agreement, ZPC was ordered to pay Intratrek US$22 million in damages.

“In March 2018, Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa vowed to institute the arrest of Chivayo, whom he described as ‘fly-by-night briefcase businessman’ [and] in February 2025, the president described Chivayo as a ‘philanthropist’.”

The report further indicates that Chivayo has been linked to government tenders relating to elections, security, internet connectivity and cancer treatment — but “he vehemently rejects allegations which link him to fraud, saying he is a legitimate businessman, who has ‘haters’ and people riding on his name for ‘political relevance’”.

He is also reported to have infiltrated into the Zimbabwean sport sector, he has “often announced football club sponsorship deals worth millions of US dollars, though claims of unmet pledges often follow Chivayo”.

“In January 2025, he pledged a US$10-million package for the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) should his preferred candidate, Nqobile Magwizi, win the ZIFA presidency.

“Magwizi eventually won that month’s election, but until now, there are no publicly available records indicating Chivayo fulfilled his US$10-million donation pledge,” reports trt.global/afrika.

The BBC News also reported of Chivayo on June 22, 2025 — entitled ‘How a self-styled knight giving away cars and wads of cash got people talking’ — saying: “A flashy tycoon in Zimbabwe has a nation entranced — some beguiled, others alarmed — by his habit of giving away cars along with wads of cash to those he deems patriotic — even presenting them to those he has never met.

“Mercedes-Benzes, Toyota SUVs, Range Rovers are Wicknell Chivayo’s vehicles of choice for the recipients, who range from music stars, down-at-heel gospel singers, footballers, church leaders and those loyal to the ruling Zanu-PF party.

“The controversial 44-year-old is himself partial to a white Rolls-Royce and has a fleet of personalised luxury cars, some of which he has also started giving away as he gets in newer models.

“For years ‘Sir Wicknell’, as he calls himself, has loved to boast about his riches via Instagram — details the tabloids lap up — but while he is open about how he spends his money, he is less so about how he makes it as he faces scrutiny over the source of his wealth in a country where life is a daily struggle for most people.

“In the last year or so his social media account has also been awash with posts about his donations. They follow a similar pattern: a photo of a gleaming car with balloons tied to it — sometimes with a big bow on its bonnet — is accompanied with a message of congratulations to someone with instructions about where they should collect it, usually from one of various luxury car dealerships he uses in the capital, Harare.”

The BBC News quotes a post to top musician Jah Prayzah in May instructing him: “Please GO AND SEE VICTOR at EXQUISITE MOTORS, your brand new 2025 Range Rover Autobiography is FULLY PAID FOR and ready for collection,” adding that US$150,000 (£111,000) in cash was also awaiting him there.

“This is just a small token of my gratitude for your IMMENSE contribution to Zimbabwean music and your patriotism in uniting thousands of people through music, preaching PEACE, preaching LOVE and preaching UNITY in every song.”

The BBC report adds that the volume of his ‘public gifting’ “has become almost frenzied — he even reposts humorous memes about it”.

“On social media, Zanu-PF accounts have been lavishing him in praise, commending his philanthropy. In private Sir Wicknell — as everyone knows him — has also dished out houses and study scholarships to followers of his apostolic church, the Zion Christian Church, known for their white garments and worshipping outdoors.

“The softly spoken, heavy-set businessman has come to symbolise Zimbabwe’s growing ‘flex culture” — the desire to flash one’s wealth in person and online.

“’$hopping and spending money are just some of my hobbies,” he wrote in 2013, when he first started on Instagram, next to a hotel trolley full of his purchases.

“This was followed not long after by the quip: ‘Damn being rich is a headache at times’ and a photo of his vast shoe collection as he tried to decide whether to wear a pair of Louis Vuittons or Salvatore Ferragamos.

“And so it has continued, with holidays to Dubai, New York, Paris, London and business trips to Johannesburg, Shanghai and New Delhi — and most recently posts about his new private jet.”

The BBC also takes cognizance that Chivayo “loves to display his proximity to power” by posting photos of himself with Zimbabwe’s former President, late Robert Mugabe, his successor Mnangagwa to other African leaders such Tanzania’s Suluhu Hassan and Kenya’s Ruto.

A businessman, who previously dealt with Chivayo and asked to remain anonymous, told the BBC that “he is very hands-on with his businesses dealings, very much on the ground and keeping tabs on how every cent is spent — it’s clear that he is politically protected”.

“In Cry Havoc, the late British mercenary and coup plotter Simon Mann‘s 2011 memoir of his time incarcerated in Zimbabwe’s Chikurubi Maximum Prison, the former British army officer said his ‘well-educated’ fellow inmate Wicknell warned him never to criticise Zanu-PF.

“The pair were in the same cell block — Mann serving four years for his role in a failed coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea in 2004 and Chivayo a couple of years for fraud.

“’In Africa the unsolicited gift is massively powerful’, Mann quoted him as saying — a seemingly prophetic comment.”

He is reported to an avowed Zanu-PF supporter and “he has previously attributed his success to the party’s empowerment policy, which was launched in 2013 and forced all companies to cede economic control to black Zimbabweans”.

“Questioned in February about Wicknell’s predilection for giving away cars, President Mnangagwa dismissed an accusation that the businessman was acting as his frontman — ‘Where would I get the money to give him?…You can’t bother me about someone who is philanthropic’ he told journalists”.

The report also says Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) launched an inquiry last year after South African investigative non-profit organisation Open Secrets alleged Chivayo had received a windfall of millions of dollars as the facilitator of a tender to supply election materials to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) in 2023.

“The scandal ballooned when a leaked audio message purportedly of Mr Chivayo talking about the deal also seemed to implicate two other businessmen by consoling them for failing to get promised kickbacks, suggesting many more deals were in the pipeline as ‘we have them in vice-like grip’.

“The fallout was spectacular — Zec denied any dealings with Mr Chivayo or the other men, all of whom denied the allegations — and a year on ZACC has not charged anyone.

“Mr Chivayo said the audio must have been a deep fake, generated through sophisticated technology. He also apologised to the president for any impression the audio may have created that the first family was corrupt.

“But not long afterwards, the two businessmen mentioned in the audio were arrested and charged with misappropriating around $7m in a separate case. They deny the accusations, linked to a presidential goat scheme tender, and have spent almost a year in jail waiting for the trial to begin.”

The BBC further reports that in the week the article was published before there was another leak over a document from March about an alleged US$500 million contract with Chivayo’s name listed as a director of a company to supply cancer treatment equipment to the Zimbabwe government for four years.

“The outrage is over the fact that if it is true, it did not go through a public tendering process. The government and Mr Chivayo have dismissed the allegations, pointing out that the so-called contract touted as evidence is unsigned.

“For a whole group of opposition outfits to team up and make noise about an unsigned FAKE document is an embarrassing desperation for political relevance,” Chivayo is quoted as saying.

The report concludes by indicating that Chivaya “has often said he is not interested in becoming a politician — for him it is all about the money and he says he is determined to see off his ‘haters’. Posing by his jet recently, he wore a tracksuit with a giant “B” emblazoned on his tracksuit, saying: ‘Take note the ‘B’ is the inevitable billionaire status coming my way against all odds’.

“But his close ties with power, which have allowed him to become rich, mean he will always fly close to controversy.”

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