Gold heist: Security Chiefs want Fidelity Printers and Refiners investigated
Zimbabwe’s top security chiefs have called for an immediate investigation into the operations of the country’s sole gold buyer and purifiers, Fidelity Printers and Refiners (FPR), amid reports the gold that was found in possession of the suspended Zimbabwe Miners Federation boss Henrietta Rushwaya could have only come from the government gold buyers.
FPR is the only refinery in the country that “has the capacity to refine gold to purities of 99.5% and above using the following refining techniques: Miller chlorination process, Electrolytic refining process and the Aqua regia refining process.”
The call to probe FPR comes on the backdrop of reports that detective Chief Inspector Michael Chibaya told the court that they want to establish how Rushwaya and her accomplices got the 99.99 percent purified gold, which can only be obtained from FPR.
Last week the security chiefs held a crisis meeting where a decision was made that all gold buying licenses be cancelled after it emerged that there were serious irregularities in the issuance of the gold buying licenses.
This was revealed in a meeting that was held by the security chiefs together with President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, VP Kembo Mohadi and State Security minister Owen Ncube.
A close source has told Zim Morning post that the security chiefs want all gold buying licenses to be cancelled because the holders might have gotten them through unscrupulous means.
According to the Fidelity Printers there are two ways in which one can attain a gold buying license but it is believed that very few people went through the processes.
For one to be granted a license but not owning a gold mine they must have a police clearance, a tax clearance and physical addresses of the company directors.
However the service chiefs are said to have discovered that the licenses were being granted without following proper procedure, hence the need to have Fidelity Printers investigated.
Zim Morning Post has also discovered that the licenses are currently being given by one person instead of a committee that seats to verify the eligibility of the applicants.
“There is supposed to be a committee that verifies the eligibility of the gold buying licences to make sure that only trustworthy people are given access to buying the precious mineral however only one person has been doing that and this has raised so much questions from the service chiefs,” a source told Zim Morning Post.
The meeting by the service chiefs comes in the wake of gold smuggling by Herietta Rushwaya on 26 October.
Rushwaya’s arrest has opened a can of worms implicating more than six people so far and is likely to claim some top officials at the Fidelity Printers.
Smuggling of both gold and diamonds in Zimbabwe has reached unprecedented levels prompting the security chiefs to hold the crisis meeting.
