HARARE – President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s investment adviser to the United Arab Emirates swindled an Indian man out of US$2.3 million after selling him a property he did not own, and offering to facilitate work permits for 450 people, ZimLive can reveal.
Tempter Paul Tungwarara, who has another pending police complaint by a man who claims he defrauded him of $300,000, has allegedly used his political links to suppress police investigations.
Police were aware of the complaints when Mnangagwa named him “special presidential investment adviser to the UAE” in November last year.
Razaa Jishan, 30, planned to set up a gaming business in Harare and was looking for land to build his company offices. He was introduced to Tungwarara.
Tungwarara, according to Jishan’s police complaint under case number AFU DR 01/07/23, introduced himself as a director of a company called Prevail International. He produced a board resolution to the effect that he was authorised to sell stand number 3 Tyward Close, Ballantyne Park in the leafy suburb of Highlands.
Jishan paid $1.3 million in cash to Tungwarara in five installments between October and December 2022, he told police.
Tungwarara was also awarded the contract to build offices and a sceptic tank on the premises for $550,000 and $99,000 respectively.
Police were told that Tungwarara also promised to secure Jishan a gaming licence, and he was given $150,000 for the purpose.
Boasting of access to the president and important government offices, Tungwarara also told Jishan he could secure him 450 work permits for Indian workers for his company Rod Cell Incorporated, formerly trading as Fair Play International.
Jishan told police he even relied on Tungwarara to find him an internet servive provider.
“Each time he wanted money, he would threaten to switch off our internet and several times he switched off the Internet and after giving him some money would switch it on,” he said.
Jishan said his worst fears were realised when, while attempting to complete transfer of the property, he discovered that it was in fact owned by a company called Hopsick Investments.
Tungwarara had also not delivered on the offices, the work permits and the gaming licence.
It got worse, he told police.
Sometime in February 2023, Tungwarara arrived at night and locked the gate, blocking access for Jishan and his workers. He opened the gate after several hours of pleading.
And then, in March 2023, Tungwarara allegedly arrived with armed men at the property and “ordered everyone to vacate the premises.”
“They locked the property such that we could not get inside. That’s when I realised that I had been defrauded by Tungwarara. I lost US$2,294,000,” he said.
ZimLive last week revealed how Tungwarara in 2019 borrowed US$350,000 from Jospher Chibisa claiming he had construction tenders at State House but only repaid US$64,500.
Chibisa reported Tungwarara for fraud at Harare’s CID commercial crimes unit but “the docket disappeared,” he said in a November 21, 2024, letter to Mnangagwa’s wife.
It was reported in February last year that the finance ministry rejected a US$15 million invoice from Tungwarara’s Paulos Construction company which was awarded a tender to build a perimeter wall around State House. It remains unclear how much the company was eventually paid.
Tungwarara, also using his proximity to Mnangagwa, has won a lucrative tender to drill thousands of boreholes around the country under the so called “presidential borehole scheme.”
When a section of veterans of the country’s independence war recently demanded Mnangagwa’s immediate resignation, Tungwarara was seen handing cash to war veterans around the country, promising to build them decent housing and drill each one of the liberation fighters a borehole. There are over 20,000 surviving war veterans.
Tungwarara declined to answer our questions.
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