New Zimbabwean UN appointee Frederick Shava haunted by criminal past

By Tatenda Dewa | Harare Bureau |

Frederick Shava, a former cabinet minister in President Robert Mugabe’s government, must be in jail instead of at the United Nations (UN) where he was recently appointed the president of the global body’s Economic and Social Council (Ecosoc), says the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Shava, the Zimbabwean ambassador to the UN, was appointed to the Ecosoc position two weeks ago during the body’s annual general assembly in New York, taking over from Oh Joon of South Korea.

“There are many worrying trends in the world today. Almost on a daily basis, we are confronted with disturbing reports of instability and armed conflict, global humanitarian and human rights crises, terrorism and violent extremism, inequality and growing economic, social, and environmental tensions,” Shava said as he accepted the position.

Back home, Zimbabwe is dogged by almost all the ills he bemoaned, as citizens become increasingly impatient with growing poverty, unemployment and politically motivated human rights abuses as well as a collapsing economy.

He is head one of the numerous foreign missions that have for long gone without salaries and endured the embarrassment of failing to pay their accommodation, power and water bills because Harare cannot raise the money.

Shava has shady past as, in the late 1980s, he was fired as cabinet minister for looting cars availed through a subsidised vehicle scheme meant to benefit senior government officials.

The scandal involved ministers buying luxurious Toyota Cressida vehicles from the government-controlled vehicle assembler, Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries, and reselling them at inflated prices.

He was arrested, tried and convicted of perjury.

“The recent appointment of Zanu PF’s convicted fraudster, Fredrick Shava, as the president of the respected United Nations’ Economic and Social Council (Ecosoc) is inappropriate for Zimbabwe and the UN at large as he is a person of questionable credibility and standing,” said Willias Madzimure, the PDP international relations secretary.

Ecosoc is one of the six principal organs of the UN, responsible for coordinating the economic, social, and related work of 14 UN specialized agencies.

Shava, who is a close ally of Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, was subsequently pardoned later gifted with a post the UN mission post by Mugabe after some time in the political wilderness.

In 2006, Shava was in the eye of another controversy when he attempted to loot agricultural equipment at a farm in Kwekwe in the Midlands province.

He had been allocated the farm under the fast track land redistribution programme that started in 2000 and forcibly removed some 6,000 commercial white farmers to make way for landless blacks.

“This is evidence enough that he is a highly corrupt Zanu PF official who should instead be in jail rather than at the UN,” said Madzimure.

“He has nothing to take to Ecosoc as the Zanu PF government is taking the country in the opposite direction than other developing countries;” he added.

As Shava got appointed to head Ecosoc, his boss, Mugabe, was threatening to pull Africa out of the UN for lack of reforms that would include giving at least two permanent seats to the continent on the Security Council. Nehanda Radio