Kudakwashe Bhasikiti

He farms Moria Farm in Mwenezi, which war veterans once threatened to invade in 2014.

School / Education

Tertiary: Was doing Doctoral degree at University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg. Dissertation titled "An analysis of the Gutsaruzhinji polity in Zimbabwe".

Service/Career

In the 2000 Parliamentary Election (see A History of Zimbabwean Elections) Mwenzi returned to Parliament:

• Isaiah Shumba, alias Mwasvayamwando, of Zanu PF with 22 676 votes,
• Kudakwashe Bhasikiti, Independent, with 2 643 votes,
• Luciah Masekesa of MDC, with 1 881 votes,
• Godfrey Halimani, Independent, of MDC with 917 votes.

Kudakwashe Bhasikiti has also been a Zanu PF member for quite a lengthy period of time and has held several posts both in government and the party. In the elections of 2008, Bhasikiti won the seat for the house of assembly for Mwenezi East in Masvingo Province under a Zanu PF ticket. ^[1] Bhasikiti was also the Provincial Affairs minister for Masvingo. Bhasikiti was reported to be a very violent character with thuggish tendencies. ^[2] The former Zanu PF politiburo member was fingered to have been fanning factionalism in the party and was also linked to a plot to unseat president Robert Mugabe. ^[3] Following the mounting allegations, there were calls from certain sections within the party to have Bhasikiti and his accomplices removed from their posts in the party and government. War veterans in the province carried out a demonstration in which they called for the dismissal of Bhasikiti from the party. In defiance of the protestations for him to step down, Bhasikiti went to contest and won elections to be the district's representative in the Zanu PF Central Committee. ^[4]

In the 2013 Elections, (see A History of Zimbabwean Elections) Mwenezi East returned to Parliament:

• Kudakwashe Bhasikiti of Zanu PF with 18 196 votes or 85.94 percent,
• Philip Marufu of MDC–T with 2 482 votes or 11.72 percent,
• Simbarashe Purazeni of MDC–N with 494 votes or 2.33 percent.

Total 21 172 votes

After having been voted to take a post in the Zanu PF central committee, Bhasikiti was barred from attending the 2014 Zanu PF congress. The decision to bar Bhasikiti was arrived at by the party’s Provincial Coordinating Committee (PCC), which convened at Masvingo Polytechnic College. The meeting unanimously agreed to replace Bhasikiti by Cuthbert Muzara while Rtd Brigadier General Livingstone Chineka replaced Mutandwa. The PCC made its decision to bar Bhasikiti and his co-accused on the grounds that the pair was aligned to Joice Mujuru who was said to have harboured intentions to oust president Robert Mugabe. ^[5] At the height of factional fights, Bhasikiti is said to have cried in a politiburo session. It was reported that Bhasikiti attacked those opposed to Mujuru and on several instances came to the defence of Mujuru up until he was overcome with emotions and ended up crying and in a pool of tears. There were also reports in which it was claimed that Bhasikiti was told by the president that he was in the wrong "basket" an analogy meant to characterise Bhasikiti's position in the Zanu PF factions.

Events

Alleged Corruption

Bhasikiti is said to have been involved in a dubious arrangement which saw him benefitting from the proceeds of Montana Ranch whose profits should have benefitted the council. It was alleged that when Bhasikiti was elected council chairman in 2006, he overturned the previous arrangement which would have directly benefited the council and started selling the meat himself promising to deposit the funds into the council's coffers but he did not honour his word. ^[6] Bhasikiti sold all the meat in his butchery and never remitted any profits to the council. In 2008, the former minister was also accused of having distributed farm implements through improper channels by distributing them when the District Administrator was supposed to distribute them. Bhasikiti is said to have distributed the farm implements to a few of his cronies who had campaigned for him. ^[6]

Dismissal From Party

Bhasikiti was dismissed from parliament after Zanu PF wrote to the August House arguing that the former Politburo member was no longer representing the interests of the party. He thus ceased to represent Mwenezi East Constituency and the seat was bound to be declared vacant. ^[7]

Controversial Statements

He was captured in the media as having said that during the days of the inclusive government, things were running smoothly than they were after the expiry of the inclusive government. Bhasikiti's utterances were interpreted as having confirmed earlier speculations that he was part of a clique aligned to former vice president Mujuru which sought to delay the holding of the harmonized elections and the removal of president Mugabe from office.

Tokwe Mukosi Debacle

Bhasikiti was embroiled in an altercation in 2014 with the people that had been resettled from Tokwe Mukosi Disaster over the promises that he had made to the people which he later on failed to honour. The resettled people were said to be living under squalid conditions in which they were exposed to rain and had also lost their livestock. There were other reports which claimed that the minister and other senior government officials had stolen some of the items that were meant for the Tokwe Mukosi victims. The former resident minister nonetheless denied the allegations arguing that the system adopted by the government to ensure that the goods donated reached the intended beneficiaries was foolproof and transparent for proper reconciliation. ^[8]

ZETDC Debt

In December 2018, ZETDC obtained a court order to garnish the Kudakwashe Bhasikiti sugar cane account of Mkwasine Estate to pay a $133 000 electricity debt. ^[9]

Evading legal fees

Tendai Biti (MDC vice president, former Finance Minister) has won a case against Kudakwashe Basikiti (former Zanu PF MP and Masvingo Provincial Affairs Minister), who was appointed to the MDC’s national executive in June 2019 by party leader Nelson Chamisa. Kudakwashe Basikiti had been evading paying legal fees to the Harare lawyer. Biti claimed he had an agreement with Bhasikiti in which the latter was supposed to pay $12 000 in legal fees after he rendered “complicated legal services” to Bhasikiti in 2015 and 2016. High Court Judge, Benjamin Cikowero heard the matter in his chambers on 7 June 2019 and ruled in Biti’s favour.

Farming 2019

Kudakwashe Bhasikiti decided to quit politics and focus on agriculture at his Moriah Farm in Mwenezi East in 2019. (He also appears to have interests in Montana Ranch and Mkwasine Sugar Estate.) He was expelled from Zanu PF in 2015, joined the National People's Party (NPP), the Zimbabwe People First party, then the MDC. There was drama in 2015 as Zanu PF Politburo members toured Moriah Farm after Bhasikiti was falsely accused of cutting down the citrus plantation on the farm, out of disgruntlement over his expulsion from the party. ^[10]

Farm Mechanisation

In July 2020, Fiscorp, the subsidiary (former) of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, which handled the Farm Mechanisation Programme between 2007 and 2008, challenged former legislator, Mr Kudakwashe Bhasikiti and former Cabinet minister Mr Saviour Kasukuwere, to prove that they repaid the loans through which they received equipment under the scheme. This came as former RBZ Governor, Dr Gideon Gono, attempted to set the record straight to say the programme was not corrupt. He was responding to claims by Dr Alex Magaisa, and said that the programme, which was carried out during a difficult period, started as a loan and was later changed to a grant after the Government of National Unity had approved the switch. Former Fiscorp chief executive Mr Mathews Kunaka said no beneficiary was invoiced to repay the equipment and challenged Mr Kasukuwere and Mr Bhasikiti to provide details showing their repayments. He said Fiscorp never issued invoices and beneficiaries never knew the amount they owed, but only signed for delivery of the equipment.

It emerged that Mr Kasukuwere received more than just two tractors that he claimed to have paid for, but an assortment of farm implements. On his Twitter handle, Mr Kasukuwere said: “I think the RBZ should invoice and collect the money. These are public funds and no one should put up useless defence for looting. I paid for the two tractors that I got and I am happy to receive an invoice from the RBZ if I owe them anything.” Mr Bhasikiti, on his Twitter handle said; “Those who are saying farm mechanisation was for free are telling blatant lies. I paid $10 billion for mine, which was worked as the United States dollar equivalent then.” ^[11]

Rape Allegations

In December 2022, Bhasikiti allegedly raped a 12-year-old girl at an orphanage that he ran in Mwenezi.

He was not asked to plead when he appeared before Mwenezi magistrate Faina Makumbe on 15 December 2022 and was remanded in custody to 29 December 2022.

Bhasikiti was set to be transferred to Chiredzi Remand Prison as his case was expected to be heard at the Chiredzi Regional Court. ^[12]

After he was released on bail, Kudakwashe Bhasikiti said he had God to thank, for him to be out on bail. On Twitter he posted that lies cannot stand the truth. "I thank God that am out of prison. Lies can't stand against truth. Bhasikiti will remain a caring & responsible father to both family & orphans. Shame on those who abducted the child girl & use her political battles. "Chokwadi chichabuda pachena" Will Wait for the Court to decide," he said. ^[13]

The rape trial began in March 2023. Kudakwashe Bhasikiti appeared before Chiredzi regional Magistrate, Judith Zuyu. The allegations are that sometime in 2019, Bhasikiti went into a room at an unregistered orphanage that he ran at his farm in Mwenezi where the complainant was sleeping. Bhasikiti approached the complainant and gagged her mouth with one of his hands while forcibly removing the complainant’s clothes. The court heard that the accused then allegedly raped the complainant once. The matter only came to light in December 2022 after police received a tip off from one of the workers at the orphanage whom the complainant had confided in, leading to Bhasikiti’s arrest. ^{[14] [15]}

In April 2023, Kudakwashe Bhasikiti was absolved of rape. Chiredzi Regional Magistrate Ms Judith Zuyu cleared Bhasikiti citing conflicting and inconsistent statements from key state witnesses who testified in the case. ^[16]

N’angas

In February 2023, a group of 28 n’angas, led by one Sinibio Kakono also known as Gunjeremhute, were evicted from the orphanage after Bhasikiti successfully applied for a court order at the Mwenezi Magistrate Court which necessitated the ultimate removal of his former consultants. They are now stranded and camping in a secluded bush just a few meters from where they were evicted, along the Masvingo-Beitbridge highway just less than three kilometers from Rutenga Growth Point.

Gunjeremhute accused Bhasikiti of using and dumping them. They said Bhasikiti himself convinced him and his group to leave Seke (Chitungwiza) where they were based before even harvesting their crops. They were visited at their shrine in Seke by Bhasikiti who consulted them and they helped him to make a fortune out of his gold mines. He visited them twice, then later on he came back with his truck and he carried all of us free of charge to be here in Mwenezi. “Bhasikiti is the one who allowed us to clear and grow crops at the same orphanage but now given that our crops are mid-way for harvesting, owing to the court order, we are being barred from attending to them. We had initially agreed with Bhasikiti that we were going to stay at the orphanage as we please, that’s why we had begun some serious farming activities there,” said Gunjeremhute.

In a telephone interview Bhasikiti admitted having at one point consulted one of the n’angas. They later on came on their own to Mwenezi and he only accommodated them after they promised that they were going to stay for only two months. “I am not the one who brought them here but rather they came on their own. What is correct is that at one point in time I sought the assistance of one of them after one of my surveyors advised that there was need for traditional rites to be performed first for our mining activities to succeed. “After one of them visited my mine, they later on approached me saying that they have got some prayers for the country which they want to perform here in Mwenezi. They approached me sometime in June 2022 and I decided to temporarily accommodate them at the orphanage after they promised to stay for only two months. When the two months lapsed, they began to give excuses and that is when we decided to seek an eviction order from the courts,” said Bhasikiti.
Two months from June is August. Court order given February next year.

Bhasikiti further opened up on the rapes charges which he is facing and said the allegations only surfaced after he served the healers with the eviction order. He said he was the first person to raise a red flag after he suspected that the minor (who later turned out to be his alleged victim) was sexually abused by one of the traditional leaders.
Bhasikiti allegedly raped in 2019, n’angas arrived in 2022.
“Though the rape case is now before the Magistrate Courts, I can safely tell you that the same healers are the ones who framed me after I served them with the eviction order,” he added.
Arrested December 2022, court eviction of them February 2023.

Bhasikiti who was arrested in December 2022 over allegations of raping a minor who was based at his orphanage was released on bail pending trial. Soon after his release from remand he immediately initiated the eviction of the n’angas from the orphanage. [17]

Further Reading

References