Talk:Mutumwa Mawere

Untitled
LETTER TO WIKIPEDIA

Please find above a copy of a publication that appears on your site. I have tried to correct this malicious version but it appears that someone is managing to re-insert this version. Would appreciate knowing who is behind this and to ensure that your site is not used for malicious and defamatory purposes. I point out that the allegation that my rise was accompanied by allegations of improper support by politicians from the ruling ZANU-PF. I am not aware of any such allegations or any investigation of any improper support by anyone. If the write can provide the evidence, I have no problem in responding to this. In addition, I never received any guarantee to purchase any of my companies. The allegation that my company came under government scrutiny is incorrect. The allegation that I prejudiced the state of more then Z$300 billion is factually incorrect. My companies are private entities and no company under my control has been charged with prejudicing the government. It is ridiculous to suggest that companies can prejudice the state without providing proof thereof or explaining in what context the state would be prejudiced by private companies. No state including the government of Zimbabwe does business with private business that would give rise to an alleged prejudice. The writer correctly states that the attempt by the government of Zimbabwe to export its tyranny to South Africa by applying for my extradition failed precisely because the allegations leveled against me were baseless and malicious. The allegation that following the abortive attempt to extradite me, my businesses began to collapse is factually inaccurate. My businesses are still operating viably. The government of Zimbabwe has nationalized my businesses and this matter is before the court in Zimbabwe. Should the write wish to get copies of the legal documents pertaining to this matter, I have no objection to furnishing him with such evidence.

Regards, Mutumwa Mawere

Claimed allegations of ZANU-PF improper conduct during Mr Mawere's rise
The source provided in the article claims: Right from the start, Mawere appeared to have struck the right chord, as his empire grew in leaps and bounds without raising much sweat.

It had always been suspected, but denied, that Mawere leveraged his success on influence-peddling ZANU PF bigwigs who have since abandoned him in his hour of need.

What with the unusual US$60 million government guarantee doled out in 1998 to facilitate the purchase of his Shabanie Mashaba Mines (SMM) and the seven-year privilege to market asbestos fibre, which was however, cancelled in March this year under unclear circumstances? That sounds like a report of allegations of improper conduct by the "ZANU PF bigwigs" to me. The article doesn't (and can't) claim that there is any truth behind these allegations, but they have been reported about in a supposedly reliable, independent source. (I must admit I was deceived by The Financial Gazette's self-description as a "Southern African" paper and had assumed it to be based in South Africa; since it's based in Zimbabwe and claimed to be influenced by the government, it may be less independent than desirable, making further sources necessary.)

300 billion extradited?
Again citing the source: "It all started with Mawere's arrest in South Africa at the request of the Zimbabwean authorities, who are still keen to quiz the Africa Resources Limited (ARL) chairman on allegations of prejudicing the state of more than $300 billion." So it is reported that the Zimbabwean government raised these allegations and tried to get Mr Mawere extradited on related charges (but failed). Again the article doesn't (and can't) state they're true, and to me it even suggests the opposite. Again we report - sourced! - about allegations raised by third parties against Mr Mawere. Should we add that he denies these claims? I thought that nearly self-evident, but we can state it explicitly and easily find sources for that, eg his column in NewZimbabwe.com.

Fate of Mr Mawere's business empire
According to the source, the failure of Zimbabwe's Government to get him extradited "could not stop the onslaught on his troubled empire, which is fast collapsing like a deck of cards." It continues: Hence, when interest rates started creeping up, Mawere's empire ran into liquidity problems, with some of the companies caught up in a web of expensive loans.

Ideally, observers say, Mawere wanted to control major players in the financial services sector namely the Financial Holdings Limited (Finhold), which owns the Zimbabwe Banking Corporation and Scotfin Limited, as well as First Banking Corporation (FBC) to carry the cash-starved business through.

The monetary authorities, however, moved at a much faster pace than he had anticipated resulting in an excessive interest bill that drove his empire against the wall. We could try and make clearer that Zimbabwe's government was a driving force in the dismantling of Mr Mawere's Zimbabwean business interests, but the source says that there were financial troubles amplified, but not started by his differences with the Zimbabwean government. This may need further verification, because here the newspaper doesn't just report about allegations raised by the authorities, but about the state of the businesses, which it might be interested in misrepresenting.

Current legal status
Any sources about the current legal proceedings would be greatly appreciated. Mr Mawere seems to be a leading opponent of the Zimbabwean economic practices (and especially he's fighting the nationalization of his companies), but I had difficulties finding reliable sources.

In the mean time, I've tagged the article as being factually disputed, and will rewrite parts later today to make Mr Mawere's denial of the allegations against him more explicit. --Huon 07:07, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

I added further sources and made more explicit which parts of the article are based on what source. What I didn't (yet) add are Mr Mawere's inclusion in EU and US lists of "targeted sanctions" in 2002 because I couldn't get any information on the end of said sanctions - ie whether the US and EU admitted a mistake or just lifted the sanctions when it became obvious that Mr Mawere was not (any more) allied to President Mugabe. Also missing is the information on Mr Mugabe's in absentia election to ZANU-PF provincial secretary for Masvingo in 2003 and his reaction. If some formulations are still considered to violate a neutral point of view (such as "government scrutiny"), I'll be happy to discuss alternatives. --Huon 12:52, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

BLP
I have removed a paragraph of text from this article. Although cited to a reliable source, the source simply did not support most of what was in the paragraph, rendering it a violation of our policy on living people. Please, when editing this article, make sure every individual claim is sourced to a reliable source that explicitly supports what it is saying. Phil Sandifer 16:04, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Copyvios
I changed some text in the introduction and the Background section which was a copy&paste job from Mr Mawere's blog, compare here, and thus probably a copyright violation. At the very least, we should rewrite it in our own words. Furthermore, since this information is from Mr Mawere himself, it's less reliable than, say, a newspaper article or other third-party biographer. Thus, we should use it with care. While I did so, I also made some changes to the infobox. What I'm not yet happy whith is his birthplace. When he was born, the country was called Rhodesia. Now it's Zimbabwe. What should we call it? Right now I changed the infobox to say Zimbabwe instead of Rhodesia, but I'm open for either option as long as it's consistent. I'm looking for precedents. Huon (talk) 00:02, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Columnist citations
I just tidied up the citations in the article's Columnist section. While it's great to have that many citations, I fear that some just don't say what they're cited for. The most obvious example: "Try as he did, the public remained unconvinced by his explanations, deeming his attempt to exonerate himself from ZANU-PF patronage system nugatory." This has as a reference an article (quite interesting, by the way) which was written in 2004 - thus it predates Mawere's explanations by two years and can't say anything about the public's reaction to them. Another point: The sentence "He claimed in these first articles that Gideon Gono's duels with businessmen in the country was a plot by Mugabe..." has four references - but the three I can read don't even mention Gono, and only the Washington Post hints at a plot by Mugabe to acquire companies; the others speak about Mawere only, and mostly about the extradition issue, not the company seizure.

Since we cover everything about his business empire's rise and decline earlier in the article, I think we should shorten that aspect of his columns (maybe a single line noting that his columnist career started with pieces about his own situation before covering other topics about Zimbabwean politics and economy?). --Huon (talk) 20:44, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

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