Govt mum as Uebert Angel scandal explodes
Story By Nqobani Ndlovu
The government has remained conspicuously silent over an explosive new Al Jazeera investigation. The investigation alleges that ambassador-at-large Uebert Angel helped funnel money to a convicted criminal linked to a proscribed terrorist organisation. The money allegedly paid for a fake protest in the United Kingdom during President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s visit.
Information minister Zhemu Soda refused to discuss the allegations yesterday. Instead, he referred questions from The Standard to his Foreign Affairs counterpart, Amon Murwira. Murwira could not be reached for comment.
What the documentary alleges
The documentary, Contract Killers and the Far Right, links Angel to a payment. Organisers allegedly used the money to stage a purported grassroots demonstration in Glasgow, on the sidelines of the 2021 COP26 climate summit.
The rally aimed to manufacture the appearance of British public support for lifting sanctions against Mnangagwa’s government. According to the investigation, Turning Point UK chief executive Jack Ross arranged the event on behalf of the Zimbabwean government. He allegedly agreed to pay thousands of pounds to Allan Nesbitt, whom Al Jazeera describes as a convicted violent criminal with links to the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). The UK has proscribed the UVF as a terrorist organisation.
Undercover footage shows Nesbitt offering to arrange assaults or killings for money. It also shows him displaying firearms. Furthermore, Al Jazeera alleges that the group likely used the money to buy arms in Northern Ireland for use in Scotland.
Angel’s role in government
Mnangagwa appointed Angel ambassador-at-large and special presidential envoy to Europe and the Americas in March 2021. As a result, Angel stood at the centre of the government’s international lobbying efforts. Footage shows him attending the Glasgow rally.
Not the first Al Jazeera exposé
This is not the first time Angel has faced serious allegations in an Al Jazeera undercover investigation. Three years ago, he was the central figure in the broadcaster’s four-part Gold Mafia series. The series exposed his alleged role in a sprawling gold-smuggling and money-laundering network.
In secretly filmed meetings, Angel offered undercover reporters a scheme to bring unaccounted cash into Zimbabwe under diplomatic cover and exchange it for gold. The reporters posed as criminals. Angel, a self-proclaimed prophet who heads the Spirit Embassy-GoodNews Church, boasted that he could move over US$1 billion in dirty cash with ease.
“You want gold, gold we can do it right now, we can make the call right now, and it’s done,” Angel told the reporters. He added that officials could move the gold under a “diplomatic plan.” He and his associate, British pastor Rikki Doolan, also claimed that Mnangagwa approved their arrangements.
Asset freeze lifted, no arrests
After the Gold Mafia broadcast, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s Financial Intelligence Unit froze the assets of Angel and several other people implicated in the documentary. However, the freeze was later lifted, and anti-corruption watchdogs have since questioned why no arrests have followed.
Angel has consistently denied wrongdoing. He claims he deliberately played along with people he suspected were criminals as part of a classified intelligence operation.
A different response in 2023
The government’s silence over the latest allegations contrasts sharply with its reaction to the original Gold Mafia broadcast in 2023. Back then, it issued a statement directing relevant organs to investigate. It also vowed that anyone found guilty would face the “full wrath of the law.”
Reporting based on original coverage by Standard.
