By Takabatana Investigations
HARARE: Zimbabwe’s deepening intelligence corruption scandal has shifted beyond a single rogue operative, with multiple sources alleging that the country’s most powerful civil servant, Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr Martin Rushwaya, is the central enabler of a system that has shielded a senior spy from arrest while millions of dollars in public funds were looted.
At the centre of the scandal is Linos Mapfumo, a senior Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operative accused of playing a key role in the diversion of at least US$4.5 million from a US$6.8 million National Social Security Authority (NSSA) loan intended to fund a CIO-linked construction project in Harare.
Investigators and intelligence sources say Mapfumo’s continued protection is not accidental but administratively and strategically engineered, using his family ties to Rushwaya.
“Rushwaya is the enabler,” said one senior intelligence source. “Mapfumo is simply the instrument because muzukuru waRushwaya and he is used to execute and front deals that would otherwise attract scrutiny.”
Mapfumo’s influence inside the intelligence apparatus predates the current scandal. He previously served as intelligence attaché to Isaac Moyo during Moyo’s tenure as Zimbabwe’s ambassador, a posting that placed Mapfumo at the intersection of diplomacy, intelligence and offshore financial networks.
Moyo later became CIO Director-General and approved the now-tainted NSSA-funded building project in late 2024, shortly before his removal and subsequent appointment as Zimbabwe’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, a move widely criticised by governance watchdogs as a mechanism to shield compromised officials.
Sources say Rushwaya played a decisive role in insulating Moyo from prosecution, a pattern now repeating itself with Mapfumo.
According to intelligence officials familiar with internal deployments, Mapfumo has now been formally attached to Zimbabwe’s embassy in Paris, which is a deliberate attempt to place him beyond the immediate reach of Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) and police investigators.
“The Paris posting is a form of protection because it removes him physically while the paper trail cools,”said a source.
The move has triggered unusual anger and dissent within the CIO, according to multiple serving officers, who describe growing frustration over what they see as selective discipline and institutional capture.
“The whole organisation is angry,” said one CIO officer. “People are punished for far less, but when it involves Rushwaya’s people, there are no consequences.”
Current CIO Director-General Dr Fulton Mangwanya initially attempted to halt the project shortly after taking office, according to internal communications and two officials with direct knowledge of the discussions.
But within weeks, Mangwanya reversed his position.
Sources say he later told senior officers that he was under “immense pressure” from the Office of the President and Cabinet.
“Mangwanya joined them,” said one source bluntly. “Not because he started it, but because the pressure was too heavy and he just saw it better to join the looting frenzy.”
ZACC documents show that NSSA disbursed US$4.5 million to Chigama Architectural Services and Project Management, the firm managing the project on behalf of Terrestrial Holdings, the CIO’s investment arm.
Instead of paying contractors, the funds were diverted into Alpha Asset Management and Access Forex, where investigators allege they were traded and laundered.
Multiple sources allege that the architect and project structure were imposed through Rushwaya’s influence, effectively allowing control of the funds from inception to diversion.
The Mapfumo case mirrors earlier scandals involving politically connected figures, including the 2020 arrest of Henrietta Rushwaya for attempted gold smuggling, a case that exposed the use of intelligence operatives to facilitate illicit activities through state infrastructure.
Meanwhile, whistleblowers inside the CIO have historically faced punishment whenever they reported procurement corruption. In 2020, several officers who blew the whistle on corruption were demoted and subjected to disciplinary hearings after their High Court appeal failed.
ZACC has conducted raids linked to the case between November 2025 and January 2026, and officials say investigations are ongoing.
But analysts say the real test is not whether Mapfumo is questioned, but whether the system that protects him is confronted.
“This is not just corruption,” said an analyst in Harare. “It is state capture operating through family, intelligence and executive power, with Rushwaya as the gateway.”
As pressure mounts, the scandal raises a question Zimbabweans have asked before, whether anti-corruption institutions can act independently in a system where power does not sit in offices, but in relationships.
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