Willowgate

Willowgate was a 1988-89 Zimbabwean political scandal in which the Bulawayo Chronicle revealed illegal resale of automobile purchases by various government officials. The ensuing investigation resulted in the resignations of five members of President Robert Mugabe's cabinet. One of the five, Maurice Nyagumbo, later committed suicide after being charged with perjury. The reporters who had broken the story, Geoffrey Nyarota and Davison Maruziva, were subsequently removed from their posts.

In October 1988, member of parliament Obert Mpofu accidentally received a check from a car company in Willowvale, an industrial area of Harare; the check had actually been intended for Alford Mpofu, a friend of Industry Minister Callistus Ndlovu. Obert Mpofu took the check to Geoffrey Nyarota, editor of the state-owned Bulawayo Chronicle. The paper had already built a reputation for aggressive investigations into corruption at all levels of government, and began to investigate.

In the weeks following their discovery of the check, Nyarota and deputy editor Davison Maruziva learned that ministers and officials from the government of President Robert Mugabe had been given early access to buy foreign cars at the Willowvale assembly plant. In some cases, the cars were bought wholesale and resold at a 200% profit. Implicated ministers included Ndlovu, Political Affairs Minister Maurice Nyagumbo, and Defense Minister Enos Nkala. The newspaper published documents from the plant to prove its case, including identification numbers from the vehicles.

In December 1988, Mugabe appointed a three-person panel, the Sandura Commission, to investigate the allegations. The Washington Post reported that the commission's hearings "struck a deep chord" in Zimbabwe, where citizens had grown to resent the perceived growing corruption of government. A provincial governor and five of Mugabe's cabinet ministers eventually resigned due to implication in the scandal, including Nkala and Nyagumbo, who at the time was the third highest-ranking official in Mugabe's party, the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU). Nyagumbo committed suicide by drinking pesticide.

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