How Wicknell Chivayo gave away millions in cars and cash

Wicknell Chivayo, the Zimbabwean businessman reported killed in a helicopter crash near Marondera on Wednesday, spent years handing out luxury cars and large sums of cash to musicians, journalists, footballers and the country's security forces, while his companies won state contracts worth close to $1 billion.

The government confirmed that a helicopter carrying "one high-profile businessman," three other passengers and two pilots crashed with no survivors, and said police would release the victims' names in due course. ZimLive, NewZimbabwe.com and journalist Hopewell Chin'ono reported that Chivayo and his wife, Lucy Muteke, were among the dead.

Chivayo, 45, was one of the most talked-about figures in Zimbabwe. His admirers called him "Sir Wicknell." His critics saw him as the clearest example of a businessman who grew rich through closeness to the ruling ZANU-PF party. He denied wrongdoing throughout his career and defended his wealth and his giving.

A fleet of free cars

Chivayo made his gifts in public, usually announcing them on social media with the name of the recipient, the model of the car and the dealership where it was waiting, "fully paid for." One investigation by Zimbabwean media estimated that he spent more than $9.3 million on luxury vehicles and gifts over a 12-month period.

Musicians were among his most frequent beneficiaries. In early 2024, he gave the singer Jah Prayzah a 2023 Mercedes-Benz 4Matic worth about $180,000. The following year, he gave the same artist a 2025 Range Rover Autobiography and told him $150,000 in cash was also waiting at the dealership. He gave Zimdancehall star Tocky Vibes a Mercedes-Benz GLE350d valued at $90,000. He handed the musicians Mathias Mhere, Diana Samkange and Andy Muridzo a Mercedes-Benz C-Class each, citing their performances at "Angel of Hope" events, the charity run by First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa.

The gifts were often explicitly political. In February 2024, he gave musician and ZANU-PF councillor Sandra Ndebele a Mercedes-Benz GLE400d worth $155,000 as a reward for promoting the party's cause. In the same post, he said he had planned to give another musician a car but had changed his mind after that artist criticized ZANU-PF.

Journalists received gifts too. In May 2025, he gave Reuben Barwe, the veteran Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation correspondent, a new Toyota Land Cruiser and $100,000 in cash, citing his "patriotism" and decades of service at the state broadcaster.

Not every gift went to celebrities. In April, Chivayo gave a $80,000 Toyota Fortuner and $50,000 in cash to Ronald Mujuru, a man who lost his wife and five children in a road accident over the Easter holiday.

Army, police and football

His largest single donation went to the state itself. On Unity Day in December 2025, he donated $2 million in cash and 20 new Toyota Land Cruiser 300 Series vehicles to the welfare funds of the army, the police and the prison service. He said the donation had been approved by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Football took a large share of his money and brought some of his sharpest criticism. He promised the national team, the Warriors, $2 million if they won the Africa Cup of Nations and, after they were knocked out in the group stage, gave them $250,000 anyway. Weeks later, he said he was withholding a separate $250,000 bonus after a petition to FIFA accused the team of match-fixing.

He was also accused of trying to influence the 2025 election for president of the Zimbabwe Football Association by promising cars and money to voting delegates, an allegation he denied. After Nqobile Magwizi won, Chivayo announced a Toyota Land Cruiser worth about $200,000 for him. Magwizi declined to take ownership of it, citing FIFA's code of ethics. Chivayo later announced that he had bought Magwizi a $250,000 Range Rover.

In March 2024, he flew on the president's helicopter to deliver a $1 million donation to the Zion Christian Church.

Where the money came from

The source of Chivayo's fortune was never fully explained. ZimLive has reported that his companies won Zimbabwean state contracts worth close to $1 billion, including $173 million for a solar plant in Gwanda, $163 million to refurbish the Munyati Power Station and $131 million for the Gairezi hydroelectric project.

The Gwanda deal became his defining scandal. His company Intratrek Zimbabwe received a $5 million advance from the state-owned Zimbabwe Power Company in 2015, but the plant has never been built. He faced several rounds of prosecution over the payment and was acquitted in 2024.

A second scandal involved the 2023 elections. Leaked documents and voice notes suggested that Chivayo acted as an agent for Ren-Form, a South African printing company that supplied the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. The commission paid Ren-Form at least R570 million. One invoice charged R23 million for a server that normally costs about R90,000. Daily Maverick reported that some of Chivayo's car giveaways may have been financed from the tender.

In the recordings, which were leaked by his former business partners, Chivayo boasted that he had "captured" Mnangagwa and the system and claimed that the president called him "my son." The president's spokesman condemned the "name-dropping," and ZANU-PF told him to stop using Mnangagwa's name. Chivayo called the recordings fake. He apologized to the president, the intelligence chief and the head of the electoral commission for creating an impression that their institutions were involved in corruption. In December 2025, the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission said it had found no evidence linking him to the deal. Ren-Form denies wrongdoing.

His record also included a criminal conviction. Kenya's The Standard reported that he was sentenced to three years in prison in 2004 for deceiving a South African man into believing he could multiply money, and that he served time at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison.

Beyond Zimbabwe

In recent years, Chivayo had looked for business outside Zimbabwe. He became a regular visitor to Nairobi and was often photographed with Kenyan President William Ruto. In June, ZimLive reported that his company IMC Construction Kenya had joined a consortium awarded a $2.9 billion contract to expand Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Kenya's transport minister, Davis Chirchir, denied that the company had any role in the project and said it had not been among the bidders.

In June, he also pledged a $163 million solar project to Eswatini after King Mswati III granted him citizenship.

Chivayo described himself as worth more than $100 million and spoke openly about wanting to become a billionaire. No major financial publication has verified any estimate of his wealth.