Zimbabwe Miners Boss Arrested For Allegedly Attempting to Smuggle Gold To Dubai

Posted by Daniel Jones African News, Featured, Latest Headlines, News Around Africa, South Africa, Southern Africa Tuesday, October 27th, 2020

photo: Zimbabwe Miners Federation President Henrietta Rushwaya

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Prominent Zimbabwe Miners Federation president Henrietta Rushwaya was arrested Monday afternoon at the Robert Mugabe International Airport here as she attempted to smuggle more than 6kg of gold to Dubai.

Rushwaya (53) of Number 1 Garlake Close, Gunhill in the capital is not new to scandals after she was unceremoniously removed from the Zimbabwe Football Association where she had been chief executive officer following her arrested in connection with what came to be known as Limpopogate match fixing scandal.

She together with the Zimbabwe men’s national team was arrested in 2017 after a whistleblower tipped authorities of the saga where Rushwaya and others had planned to fix among other matches, the 2017 Nations Cup qualifiers between Zimbabwe and Swaziland.

The scandal was linked to some Asian match fixers.

On the latest gold smuggling scandal, Rushwaya was allegedly carrying 6,9kg valued at about US$366, 000.

In a statement, police national spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed the arrest of Rushwaya saying she will appear in court Tuesday.

“ZRP confirms the arrest of Henrietta Rushwaya at RGM International Airport this afternoon after scanners at the airport checkpoint indicated that there was something in her hand luggage. Information was received that the accused intended to smuggle gold to Dubai through the airport.

“The detectives identified the suspect as she commenced check in processes and immigration formalities and immediately alerted the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe scanner operators to thoroughly examine the accused bag,” said Assitant Commissioner Nyathi.

He said the gold was detected in Rushwaya’s hand luggage.

“As a result searches were conducted and revealed the suspect had 6,09kg of gold which had not been legally cleared with customs and relevant officers at the airport. This is a suspected smuggling case and police are now conducting investigations,” added the police spokesperson.

She was questioned about the origin of the gold and claimed that she obtained it from someone only identified as Ali of Japan 786 Private Limited.

She alleged that she had been instructed to by Ali to leave the gold to an unidentified person at Dubai Airport.

Rushwaya was asked to produce export documents in respect of the gold but failed leading to her arrest by detectives from the border minerals flora and fauna unit.