THE TAGWIREI WEDDING: A MASTERCLASS IN HOW ZIMBABWE REALLY WORKS 🧵
1. Last Saturday night, Zimbabwe's ruling elite gathered at a polo club in Harare.
US$20 million+ changed hands as wedding gifts.
Boyz II Men performed.
The President attended.
And 15 million Zimbabweans were being told their wages in ZiG are worth something.
This thread is about the gap between those two realities. 👇
First: who got married?
Taonanyasha Tagwirei is the son of Kudakwashe Tagwirei, founder of Sakunda Holdings.
Who is Kudakwashe Tagwirei?
The US Treasury Department calls him a man who 'derailed economic development and harmed the Zimbabwean people through corruption.'
He's also President Mnangagwa's most important financial backer.
He financially sponsored the coup against the late President Robert Gabriel Mugabe to the tune of USD1.5Million.
The US sanctioned Tagwirei in 2020 under OFAC, the same office that goes after drug cartels and terrorist financiers.
The designation was explicit: he used his personal relationship with Mnangagwa to extract state contracts, monopolize scarce hard currency, and reward officials with luxury vehicles.
He is, legally speaking, a designated corrupt actor.
He threw the party anyway.