Goodson Nguni

Goodson Nguni
Goodson Nguni
	Goodson Nguni
Born	Robert Smart Goodson Nguni
Residence	Harare, Zimbabwe
Nationality	Zimbabwean
Occupation	Politician; Civil Rights Activist;
Known for	Former ZACC Commissioner
Political party	ZANU-PF

Goodson Nguni is a Zimbabwean politician, activist and Zanu-PF loyalist. He is the former Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) member in charge of investigations to which he was appointed by President Robert Mugabe in December 2015.

Nguni has been reported to have been convicted of fraud in South Africa in 2008. His appointment to ZACC in December 2015 was not reversed despite the revelation of the fraud conviction. He was part of the ZACC commissioners that resigned together in January 2019 following reports that the president was looking to dissolve the commission. Mnangagwa had reportedly accused the commission of being ineffective in the fight against corruption.

Activism

Nguni was in 2012 the director of a civic society group called Federation of Non-Governmental Organisations (Fongo).

Politics

In 2015, Nguni was accused by the state media of spreading stories that President Robert Mugabe owed Ray Kaukonde USD$30 000 which was advanced to him tp expand their Estate Gushungo Dairy. It was reported in The Herald that Nguni had churned the alleged false information to NewsDay reporter Richard Chidza who then ran the news in the daily newspaper.^[1] The local media reported the story in May 2015 and it is alleged that Mugabe had made these relations at a politburo meeting held in Harare.^[2]

After the news went round that Nguni was behind the leaked information, he went on to call for a press conference where he denied the allegations. In fact, Nguni accused Information Minister Jonathan Moyo of making false allegations against fellow ZANU-PF members.^[2] Nguni claimed that Moyo was working towards destroying ZANU-PF from within. Nguni also admitted that he was a ZANU-PF supporter and because of that he was entitled to protecting his leader Robert Mugabe. During the press conference, Nguni also made revelations that Jonathan Moyo was behind a media blitz against specific ZANU-PF ministers as well as the so-called Mujuru faction led by former vice president Joice Mujuru. In his address to the media, Nguni also made revelations that Moyo was linked the Baba Jukwa character which attracted social media attention before the 2013 elections by leaking top ZANU-PF secrets.^[2]

Fraud Conviction in South Africa

In 1999 Nguni is reported to have fled from South Africa to avoid arrest after allegations of fraud levelled against him by his employer. He was Regional Manager by the South African Post Office.

On 1 March 2008, the courts in South Africa established that Nguni had benefitted from his participation “in the offenses of fraud and corruption” which were perpetrated against his employer.

Wikileaks

The leaked diplomatic intelligence cables of the US embassies around the world which were part of the Wikileaks documents that were released starting in 2010 revealed that Nguni in 2000 approached the MDC supposedly on behalf of the retired army commander, Solomon Mujuru to warn of the Zanu-PF government's plans to "provoke a general upsurge in violence throughout Zimbabwe in order to have a pretext to crack down on the mdc and its supporters."

According to Nguni, one brigadier Ruwodo (as spelled by Puzey), who was brought out of retirement to mastermind the land occupations and political violence prior to the June elections, has been summoned again by president Mugabe to conduct a similar campaign of terror. (comment: post is not familiar with a brigadier Ruwodo. The name that comes the closest in our files is that of retired brigadier Richard ruwondo, whose last known position was deputy chief of finance of the army. A banker by training, Ruwondo is unlikely to be mixed up in this enterprise. End comment.) Nguni said 160 central intelligence organization (cio) operatives had already been sent to key points throughout the country to carry out this plan. When people poured into the streets in protest, the army would shoot whomever it had to shoot, puzey quoted nguni as saying.
...There was a way to avoid such a bloody scenario, Nguni continued. Senior Zanu-pf leaders greatly feared losing power, as they had done much worse things than most observers suspected, and were not willing to spend time in prison. If the mdc were willing to agree to a complete amnesty and to drop its proposal for a truth and reconciliation committee, Zanu-pf would be prepared to discuss forming a coalition government with the mdc, and president Mugabe would be convinced to retire.^[3]

Resignation from ZACC

In January 2019, he, along with the rest of the commissioners of ZACCC resigned. It had been reported earlier that month that President Emmerson Mnangagwa had summoned the commissioners and advised them they had been ineffective in investigating corruption. the commissioners were allegedly involved in corruption themselves.

Trivia

In May 2012, Nguni approached the High Court of Zimbabwe seeking to obtain an order declaring that the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission is not statutorily empowered to arrest persons accused of corruption. It is reported he did this in attempt to prevent the imminent arrest of Zanu PF Members of Parliament who were targeted by the anti-graft body for abusing the constituency development fund issued by treasury to MPs for developmental projects in their constituencies.^[4]