According to local media, a Zimbabwean lawmaker for the ruling Zanu PF party, Judge Mayor Wadyajena, was detained on suspicion of fraud and money laundering in the amount of $5 million (£4.1 million).
Justice Mayor Wadyajena and four other people, including Cotton Company of Zimbabwe officials on leave of absence, were detained on Tuesday (Cottco).
Officers from the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission took them into custody. No specifics were provided.
According to the report, the five are scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday.
Recent allegations of agricultural input theft and money diverting have shaken the state-controlled cotton buying and processing company.
A warehouse in Gokwe, believed to be owned by Wadyajena was raided by police officers last month where they found truckloads of Presidential inputs meant for constituents stacked.
The matter was handed over to ZACC by the police according to spokesperson assistant commissioner Paul Nyathi although anti-graft body mouthpiece John Makamure said he knew nothing about it.
Mayor Justice Wadyajena is a Zimbabwean politician and businessperson. He was elected to be the Member of Parliament (MP) of the Gokwe-Nembudziya constituency after the July 31st election of 2018 in which the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu- PF) won. He is the current Parliamentary Portfolio Committee Chairman on Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement.
In June 2019, he made the headlines after purchasing a US $400,000 Lamborghini. There was public criticism especially on social media with many accusing the Wadyajena of choosing an extravagant lifestyle at a time that Zimbabwe was facing one of its worst economic crises. It was also at a time when his party, Zanu-PF was pushing the “Austerity for Prosperity” message to the population.
