© THERE was heightened frenzy and buzz when intelligence officers raided the home of Sudanese Omar al-Bashir in the ongoing people’s revolution, and found the equivalent of US$113 million in multiple foreign and local currencies.
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The news buzz was as if a man had reportedly bitten a dog to death. I reflected. I could not understand the shock of this discovery or its newsworthiness to Africa. It was simply the same old story; a dog had mauled a man to death.
When Nigerian Sani Abacha succumbed to his maker while cavorting with multiple Indian prostitutes back in 1998, Maryam, his widow, attempted to flee with 38 cash loaded suitcases. Needless to say, it could never have been Nigerian naira.
It had to be multiple foreign currencies. A routine robber who had earlier burgled one of Abacha’s many hardly used local mansions had made off with two dozen gold necklaces and 40 pairs of gold earrings in a substantial heist of jewellery.
By that time, Sani Abacha had already short-changed the Nigerian fiscus of US$4,3 billion. The World Bank said his loot was too huge to handle, and needed more time to compile its quantum and location.
In January 2003, Kenya was hailed as a model of democracy after its peaceful election of Mwai Kibaki as new president.
Kibaki sanctioned a UK led extensive audit which showed how Kenyan state finances were laundered across Europe and the world, in a US$2 billion scam by out-going Daniel Arap Moi, through a complex web of shell companies, secret trusts, front-men and properties that included a 10 000ha ranch in Australia.
Kibaki appointed respected long time reformer John Githongo as anti-corruption czar. Yet, two years later, Githongo himself was on the run, having secretly compiled evidence of official malfeasance in the new government. His story is well captured by Michela Wrong, in the book, It’s Our Turn to Eat: The story of a Kenyan Whistle-Blower.
Although not set in Africa, people my generation will remember Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos who ran a famous conjugal dictatorship in the then poverty stricken third world Philippines. When the people’s revolution finally forced them to flee Malacanang Palace in 1986, Imelda left behind a safe filled with fresh water pearls, cartons of beaded turquoise, a 150 carat Burmese Ruby, a Bulgari diamond bracelet valued at USD1 million at the time, rare artwork, over 3 000 pairs of designer shoes (for a year of 365 days), five shelves of designer purses, etcetera, etcetera. Ferdinand was himself comfortable with a cache of gold bars worth over USD3.5 billion, and a further USD10 billion in assorted advance pillaging.
The insanity and greed of Africa’s own heartless dictator equivalent, Marshall Mobutu Sese Seko, (1965- 1997), is legendary. The level of damage he did to the DRC is unprecedented. Not only did he feast on lavish meals and wine daily, when the poor could hardly afford a single meal, but he also enjoyed imprisoning Africans that did not have African names. For his daughter’s wedding, the cake was USD65 000, the wedding gown a cool USD70 000 with US$3 million jewellery accompanying the day. In addition, he made off into exile with a conservatively estimated USD4 to 5 billion in loot.
Some put it at over USD 15 billion, and includes Paris town houses, a 32-roomed Swiss estate, 16th Century Spanish castle, etcetera, etcetera.
Not to be outdone, western intelligence reported that Egyptian Hosni Mubarak spent his last 18 days in power to shift his vast wealth into untraceable accounts around the world.
He knew the people’s revolution had come. Conservative estimates say his loot is anything between $3 and 40 billion. Unfortunately, Forbes Fortune Magazine does not include heads of States in their billionaires list.
Analysts say Hosni Mubarak would have been there.
But, there are cases that are more interesting. In early 2017, Yahya Jammeh, then ruler of 2 million impoverished Gambians, fled to exile in Equatorial Guinea as Ecowas forces advanced in support of popularly elected Adama Barrow.
In addition to an estimated US$1 billion already looted over the years, he cleaned out treasury of unquantified foreign currency and loaded it onto a cargo plane, along with 13 expensive cars and other luxuries.
Unfortunately, three private jets and another fleet of Rolls Royce’s that had his name embroidered into the head rests could not find space on the jumbo cargo, and have now been sold to defray some of the costs of getting rid of him.
In the same 2017, the era of “sexually transmitted” leadership ended in Zimbabwe. Grace Mugabe had been notorious for claiming that her esteemed husband, Robert Mugabe, was the poorest president in the world, yet he seemed to have forgotten a bag full of US$150 000 in their rural home of Zvimba, which was later revised in court papers to US$922 000.
The Blue Roof has never been raided. Ignatious Chombo only had $10 million cash (currency not certain) when the curtain came down. Over the years, the Mugabe’s have vehemently denied mass accumulation of external wealth.
The reports, supported by WikiLeaks, allege a vast empire of cash and properties as far afield as Switzerland, Channel Islands, Bahamas, Singapore, Malaysia, and possibly Dubai, valued at a minimum of Sterling 1 billion.
But, what the Mugabe’s cannot deny is that there are at least 30 luxury villas on their Mazoe estate, that the land audit confirmed at least 13 commercial farms, that they legally wrangled for a US$7.6 million property in Hong Kong, and Grace was duped in a US$1.35 million dollar diamond ring deal, and that she has proudly earned her titles of Gucci Grace, the First Shopper and DisGrace. Houses in the affluent Sandton, South Africa, cannot be denied.
And to spice it up, a video exists of Bellarmine (which means combative belligerent man) Chatunga, their son, dousing his US$60 000 wrist watch with Armand de Brignac gold champagne, retailed at US$400 a bottle.
Many people will only know Charles Taylor as a brutal Liberian warlord. What you may not know is that 20 or so years earlier, he had been a senior government procurement officer whose sticky fingers earned him the nickname “Super Glue” throughout Liberia.
Charged with embezzling nearly US$1million in 1983, he fled the country, got arrested in Massachusetts, USA, in 1984, and escaped jail in 1985 while awaiting extradition and disappeared.
He resurfaced in Liberia in 1989 as a Libyan trained warlord, whose rebels did not care how many bodies they crawled over, to get to the cash box, and to the diamonds and precious stones. He had come back for more, and with a vengeance.
The war ended temporarily in 1997 when the people of Liberia elected him president, more out of fear of the consequences of not giving him authority, than adoration. The United Nations has estimated that in the subsequent 6 years of warlord power, Charles Taylor looted over US$100 million of his country’s wealth and revenues, making Liberia the then poorest country on earth.
Apart from buying luxurious houses and cars, he also had a penchant for purchasing sexual partners from all over the world.
Charles Taylor trained for the job of top office. Our current ruler, when he was still minister and finally deputy to Mugabe, was variously described as the richest man in Zimbabwe whose wealth had no figure.
His tentacles are said to have been everywhere, from over 700 gold claims, to be in all sectors of industry and commerce, and to a cozy business relationship with the infamous Colonel Dyke. The United Nations named him in illicit mineral dealings in the DRC war, alongside many generals that are now sitting at the top table.
Some online reports allege multiple marriages and over 42 children. Perhaps, like Taylor, he was training for the top job. I wonder how much foreign currency he would have been carrying when he tip toed on Mozambican landmines in November 2017, and how much would have survived a blast.
On assumption of power, he set tongues wagging, with a US$8 600 Louis Vuitton limited edition presidential suitcase described as “currently out of stock, call for availability”, on the website.
Yet all these people said, So Help Me God. I am certain they were asking for God’s guidance and protection for them to plunder their nations.
Makaita Noel Mutasa is an independent political observer and commentator. He can be contacted on mnhmutasa@gmail.com
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