Orange Overalls, Raised Fists: Mike Chimombe And Mpofu Begin Life At Chikurubhi Maximum Prison
Clad in unmistakable orange prison garb, Mike Chimombe and Moses Mpofu stood side by side inside Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison, their right fists raised high in the familiar ZANU PF loyalty salute. The image is jarring — two once well-heeled businessmen now stripped of suits, offices and influence, reduced to standard-issue prison uniforms as they begin a long stretch behind bars.
Yet even as the iron gates of Chikurubi closed behind them, defiance lingered. Within minutes of the verdict being read in court a week ago, the two men announced their intention to appeal the sentence, insisting the judgment was flawed and vowing to fight on through the courts.
Their raised fists — captured now against the stark backdrop of prison walls — appear to signal political resilience as much as personal resolve. For critics, however, the gesture underscores a deeper controversy: the proximity between political symbolism and economic crime in a country where tender scandals have repeatedly drained public resources with little accountability.
Chimombe and Mpofu are not isolated figures. They are known business associates of Wicknell Chivayo, the flamboyant and controversial tenderpreneur whose name has become synonymous with opaque contracts, elite access and sudden wealth. While Chivayo himself was not on trial in this case, the conviction of his close partners has reignited public debate over the wider tender ecosystem and who ultimately benefits from it.
Inside Chikurubi, the orange uniforms level all status. The polished shoes and designer labels of yesterday have been replaced by regulation footwear and coarse fabric. Yet the message the two men project is clear: incarceration has not, in their view, extinguished their political identity or their belief that the battle is not yet over.
Whether the appeal will succeed remains to be seen. For now, the image of Chimombe and Mpofu — fists raised, faces set, prison numbers imminent — stands as a stark visual summary of a scandal that began in boardrooms and ministries, and has ended, at least for the moment, behind the high walls of Zimbabwe’s most feared prison.
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