By Farai D Hove | – Investigative Desk, Harare
A bombshell leak from Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Finance has ignited a national scandal, revealing that the government pledged USD $20 million in public funds to a little-known and opaque private firm, GainGrid Investments (Private) Limited. The letter, signed by the Permanent Secretary for Finance, George Guvamatanga, has exposed the state’s complicity in what analysts are calling a “textbook case of elite capture” and a gross failure of public accountability.
A Scandal Before the Ink Dried
Before the government or its apologists could mount any defense, a deeper rot had already emerged: no credible public record of GainGrid Investments exists. The company’s ownership structure remains hidden, its directorship unknown, and its business footprint virtually non-existent. There is no website, no traceable corporate history, and no evidence of regulatory compliance in the mining or financial sectors.
Yet this ghost entity has been guaranteed $8 million monthly—not for delivering gold, but for collecting a 5% incentive on gold delivered by others, paid in advance, backed by taxpayer funds.
The shocking part? This deal bears the signature of the top civil servant in charge of safeguarding public finance.
When Secrecy Trumps Policy
The Ministry of Finance, in a letter dated 4 September 2024, instructed Ecobank Zimbabwe to honour a financial arrangement benefiting GainGrid, citing it as a strategic partner in purchasing gold from miners. The ministry effectively turned over tens of millions in public finance to a private entity without public tender, parliamentary approval, or basic corporate transparency.
This move discredits not only the letter’s signatory, George Guvamatanga, but also the institutional integrity of the Finance Ministry. At a time when Zimbabwe is seeking debt relief and international legitimacy, the state’s willingness to do business with a company hidden behind a corporate veil undermines both financial reform efforts and public trust.
“Show Us the Owners”
The key issue now gripping civil society, opposition MPs, and independent media is simple: Who owns GainGrid Investments? And why did such a high-level ministry choose this specific entity, bypassing public procurement standards?
Government insiders, speaking off the record, say the company may be fronting for politically exposed persons (PEPs) or military-linked business interests. This comes on the heels of previous gold scandals implicating state institutions in laundering operations, including the Al Jazeera Gold Mafia exposé in 2023.
A Harare-based anti-corruption lawyer stated:
“If you can’t identify the shareholders of a company handling millions in public funds, that’s not development—that’s state-enabled looting.”
Propaganda vs. Accountability
In response to growing outrage, pro-government commentator Dereck Goto took to Facebook, labelling critics as “misinformed” and defending the incentive scheme as a “legally sound” economic strategy to curb gold smuggling. But critics argue that no policy, no matter how noble in theory, can justify dealing with a company cloaked in secrecy.
“Policy without transparency is not governance—it’s patronage,” said a political economist at the University of Zimbabwe.
The Bigger Picture
This scandal fits a broader pattern in Zimbabwe’s political economy: the routine weaponisation of opaque companies to extract value from public institutions while insulating beneficiaries from scrutiny. With billions circulating in the informal gold sector, the lack of due diligence and the ease with which secretive entities are empowered reveals the extent to which Zimbabwe’s company registry, financial system, and oversight mechanisms are compromised.
What Comes Next?
Calls are now intensifying for:
Until then, the Ministry of Finance’s credibility—along with that of its most senior bureaucrat—hangs in the balance.
This is a developing story.