FLASHY VS FRONTING: SA’s shady Mandrax past features in scandals left behind by Zimbabwe’s flamboyant Wicknell Chivayo

Beyond Zimbabwean tenderpreneur Wicknell Chivayo’s outrageously flashy social media presence were controversies.Stacks of them. And questions.Chivayo hobnobbed with high-profile politicians, could access posh cars, flew around in plush planes, and apparently dished out hundreds of thousands of US dollars to those he deemed deserving.All of this is documented on his social media accounts, where he went by the name Sir Wicknell.Wicknell Chivayo seated in a plane in a photograph posted to his Instagram account. (Photo: Wicknell Chivayo / Instagram) A photograph dated earlier this year on his Instagram profile shows him lounging on a plane, with the caption: “OUTBOUND...✈✈✈...I mean no disrespect to anyone so please just ignore my D & G track suit and my PLATINUM ROLEX watch with diamonds...😂🤣😂🤸‍♀🤸‍♀🤸‍♀🤑💰🤪🤪”It seems Chivayo was referring to a Dolce & Gabbana designer tracksuit.As for the watch, well, he seemed to have a penchant for super fancy ones.Chivayo wanted to become a multibillionaire, and his persona came across as almost larger than life.A post by an Instagram account with the name “zimmillionaires”, from August 2026, says Wicknell Chivayo committed to get cash and cars to church members. (Image: Screengrab / Wicknell Chivayo / Instagram) But the opulent social media posts stopped recently – he was killed along with his wife and four others in a helicopter crash in Zimbabwe on 30 September 2026.His burial is reportedly set for Thursday, 8 October, in Zimbabwe.Chivayo now leaves behind condolences from presidents and interconnected scandals, several circling South Africa, where he was shortly before he died.Friends in high placesZimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa was among those who publicly mourned Chivayo’s death.Kenyan President William Ruto also described him as “a dear friend whose warmth touched many people”.Ruto added: “I will remember him for his friendship, his energy and his deep conviction in the possibilities of our continent.”I am deeply saddened by the tragic passing of my friend, Wicknell Chivayo, together with his wife, Lucy Muteke, and the other lives lost in the helicopter crash in Zimbabwe. Their sudden departure is a painful loss to their families, friends and all who knew them. Wicknell was a dear friend whose warmth touched many people. I will remember him for his friendship, his energy and his deep conviction in the possibilities of our continent. I convey my deepest condolences to the families of all those who lost their lives, to President Mnangagwa, the people of Zimbabwe and everyone mourning this tragic loss. May God grant Wicknell, Lucy and all those who perished eternal rest.— William Samoei Ruto, PhD (@WilliamsRuto) September 30, 2026 As for the controversies, one of them dates back to when Chivayo, born in the early 1980s, was a child.It involves someone he later had business connections with and stubborn Mandrax suspicions that circled countries including Zambia and South Africa.Other matters Chivayo himself was directly central to are detailed in various news articles.Conviction, ‘Iboo’s company’, clampsThe Zimbabwean publication The Herald reported that Chivayo was convicted of money laundering and jailed for a few years in 2005.At some point, he either launched or joined Intratek Zimbabwe.A LinkedIn page under Chivayo’s name describes him as its chief executive officer and managing director since 2008.According to the company’s website, it “is a leading Engineering, Procurement & Construction (EPC) Contractor for energy projects, specializing in delivering comprehensive and innovative energy solutions that power the future of Zimbabwe”.Intratrek Zimbabwe was linked to broader Intratek ventures, a family business, headed by Ibrahim Sildky Yusuf, originally from Zambia and later based in South Africa.This linked Chivayo to Yusuf, also known by the alias Iboo (or, at the very least, the broader Yusuf business).While Yusuf was many years older than Chivayo, he was also politically connected.A Mail & Guardian report from 2010 said: “It appears Yusuf’s relocation to South Africa was eased by the contacts he had made with ANC figures in exile in Zambia.”It explained that his company Intratrek Properties was the agent supplying circumcision clamps that the KwaZulu-Natal health department was distributing at the time.“The clamps have attracted controversy over both their cost-effectiveness and safety when compared with surgical circumcision, and over the department’s failure to follow tender procedures in sourcing [them],” the report said.Zambia, Mandrax suspicions, and a Zuma allyDecades ago, Yusuf was identified in Mandrax trafficking investigations.According to the 2010 Mail & Guardian report, he denied he was the focus of any investigation in any country.Zambian court papers dated decades earlier, 1985, named Yusuf as part of a massive Mandrax plot.It was alleged that a Zambian resident had conspired with Yusuf and a West German individual “to illegally import into Zambia from West Germany and or other foreign countries the identities of which are not properly known 2,000,000 (2 million) tablets of a poisonous drug called Methaqualone hydrochloride which is also called MRelax but is popularly known as Mandrax”.South African investigators were also looking into Yusuf in the 1990s over local Mandrax trafficking suspicions, but that did not amount to anything.Some believed he was protected given his proximity to political heavyweights.Yusuf, meanwhile, had been in business with Billy Ma­­setlha, a former South African National Intelligence Agency head who was widely seen as an ally of former president Jacob Zuma under whose administration State Capture surged.Daily Maverick previously reported that it appeared that Yusuf died in 2021, while Masetlha died in 2023.Conflict and ‘hyped costs’Back to Chivayo.Around 2013, Intratek Zimbabwe was awarded a lucrative tender relating to solar power.A few years before Yusuf died, around 2018, there seemed to be tension between him and Chivayo, with a Zimbabwean publication reporting that Chivayo said they each owned 50% of Intratek Zimbabwe, while the company’s lawyer said Chivayo was no longer a shareholder.The friction apparently impacted business.In 2018, Zimbabwe’s The Herald reported that Chivayo denied suggestions that he was corruptly awarded the solar tender because of his political connections. (This roughly mirrors some of the earlier controversy around the tender process involving Yusuf’s Intratrek circumcision clamps in South Africa.)That saga seemed to fizzle out, but others ignited.Chivayo was subsequently central to a multimillion-rand scandal involving the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission (ZEC).It involved a commercial printing company, Ren-Form, based in Johannesburg, for which Chivayo acted as an agent.In 2024, an investigation by Open Secrets and The Sentry referred to leaked documents that suggested Ren-Form had inflated the price of ballot papers, portable toilets and biometric voting kits.“In one instance, Ren-Form invoiced the ZEC R23-million for a server that normally costs just R90,000,” that report said.It added that in December last year, Zimbabwe’s Anti-Corruption Commission closed an investigation into Chivayo, but sources in South Africa told another publication that authorities here were looking into him.According to that report, this was because South Africa’s Financial Intelligence Centre found that “Ren-Form received over R1-billion from the Zimbabwe Ministry of Finance and Economic development [and that] more than R800-million was transferred to the business bank accounts of Wicknell Chivayo”.The Ramaphosa photographsIn May this year, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa visited Zimbabwe - his counterpart there, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, had invited him.In some photographs taken during the visit, Ramaphosa is seen alongside Chivayo.The photographs sparked an outcry because it seemed that Chivayo was still on local law enforcement radar over the Ren-Form scandal.President Cyril Ramaphosa with Wicknell Chivayo. (Photo: Supplied) South Africa’s Presidency spokesperson, Vincent Mgwenya, responded, and a statement reflected his words.It said Ramaphosa and Mnangagwa had agreed to meet at the latter’s farm to interact with the constraints of presidential formalities.“The Presidency has noted with concern the reports that have surfaced following the President’s visit to Zimbabwe, identifying an individual who is a person of interest to our law enforcement, who was also present during the visit,” the statement added.“President Ramaphosa had no prior knowledge of who will be present during the visit nor was he familiar with the said individual.”Prayers and questionsIt insisted that Ramaphosa flew to Zimbabwe for a meeting with a counterpart, nothing more, nothing less.The statement added: “President Ramaphosa encourages our law enforcement agencies to continue with pursuing the matters that are under investigation involving these individuals and to do so with no fear or hesitation.”This suggested Chivayo was under investigation in South Africa; however, various publications subsequently reported that he was not, and that the Hawks here said they had no such case.In June 2026, Wicknell Chivayo posted a video of a mansion in Clifton, Cape Town, which he appeared to have bought. (Image: Wicknell Chivayo / Facebook) Chivayo had not been afraid to set foot in South Africa.It seemed he bought a mansion in Cape Town’s swanky seaside suburb of Clifton.And based on his Instagram account, a few days before his death, he was at a church conference in Johannesburg.Wealthy Zimbabwean Wicknell Chibvayo sits inside a plane. He often posted images of himself inside, or outside of, planes. He was among those who died in a helicopter crash in Zimbabwe at the end of September 2026. (Photo: Wicknell Chivayo / Instagram) “As I continue pursuing my vision of becoming a MULTI-BILLIONAIRE and building businesses of significant magnitude across Africa and beyond, I understand very well that money, intelligence and hard work alone are never enough. I need PRAYERS from every corner of the world,” Chivayo’s post about the conference said.“TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY… The journey continues, and by His grace, the vision only gets BIGGER!!!”These larger-than-life posts have ceased.Some individuals have since taken to social media, where Chivayo frequently flaunted his finances, to question how exactly he managed to amass so much money. DM