EX- con Henrieta Rushwaya swindles USD 1 million from Indian investors, namedrops Mnangagwa

By Nigel Pfunde and Nyasha Chuma

Harare- CONTROVERSIAL businesswoman and president of Zimbabwe Mining Federation Henrieta Rushwaya is a person of interest following allegations that she swindled Indian investors of USD 1million in a botched mining deal, Express Mail Zim can exclusively reveal.

The cheeky ex-convict was misrepresented to an Indian-based conglobate called NV Group that is now being represented by Colonel S S Sidhu in Zimbabwe.

Express Mail Zim understands that Rushwaya’s associate identified as Ashif Adil approached NV group and claimed to be representing President Emmerson Mnangagwa in foreign investments.

“Our chairperson expressed his desire to meet the President and do business in Zimbabwe and he connected Rushwaya on the phone who then claimed that she is speaking on the behalf of the President. Rushwaya had expressed interest to come to India thereafter but her visa was rejected because of her past deeds. She tried a lot to get an Indian visa but could not get it.
” Thereafter she came to meet the Chairman in Dubai with her 7-8 member team whom she demanded to be put up in a 5-star hotel and all travelled business class from here to Dubai and back. All details are with the police,” said Sidhu.

Investigations established that Rushwaya told investors that she was President Mnangagwa’s niece.

Although it is a fact that she is related to Mnangagwa, she has no mandate to seek mining investors and/or eventually dupe them.

When pressing for payment, Rushwaya allegedly threatened Colonel Sidhu that the deal would collapse if he did not pay at least close to half a million in greenbacks.

“Ask Dehli for the following:”
“Ref for the $200 000”
“Progress on ARDA as they are likely to terminate the deal since their requests have not been met to date,” wrote Rushwaya in a message extracted from a Whats App thread that leaked to this publication.

In an exclusive interview with Express Mail Zim, Sidhu confirmed that he had reported the matter to the Zimbabwe Republic Police who have since instituted investigations.

Circumstances are that Rushwaya approached the investors and
name-dropped the President’s name following a series of meetings at number 101 Charlton Road in Harare.

She received 1 million dollars and this publication is in possession of the communication with the NV group chief executive and proof of payment paper trail.

The money was moved in three batches with a big chunk of it paid in Dubai.

Rushwaya is said to be now evading the investors after squandering the money and taking them to a defunct mine at Mufuruzi game park where there was a rock field.

She then took them to Filabusi, Shangani and Bindura where a geological survey proved that there was no gold present.

Rushwaya could not be reached for comment at the time of writing after incessant calls.

She is also part of the controversial doccie Gold Mafia produced by Al Jazeera and she was convicted of attempting to smuggle 6kg of gold.

Her latest ‘stunt’ could potentially sour relations between the two nations, thereby going in complete negation of the Second Republic’s pursuit to foster more relations with foreign allies.

Developing story…