Kudakwashe Tagwirei Opens Up About Health Scare

ZANU-PF Central Committee member Kudakwashe Tagwirei has revealed that he was placed in a medically induced coma during a recent operation to remove his gallbladder.

Tagwirei spoke about the health scare on 1 August whilst delivering a sermon at a Seventh-day Adventist church in central Harare.

“A few weeks ago I went for an operation. A lot of people thought I was very sick — no, I was not. I went for an operation to remove my gall bladder because I had gallstones,” he said.

“They said that part is not important in your body. I don’t know why they say this — it would mean God added a part which was not necessary.

“They said the gall bladder was used by dinosaurs a long time ago. I just said I think they have not discovered why it is important; time will tell what its relevance is.

“Anyway, they had to take it out. I was in there for about four hours.”

In August 2020, Tagwirei and Sakunda Holdings were placed under sanctions by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

The US accused Tagwirei of providing material support to the leadership of the Government of Zimbabwe, and of using his relationships with high-level officials to secure state contracts and access hard currency.

By December 2022, OFAC had expanded these sanctions to include his wife, Sandra Mpunga, Sakunda’s chief marketing officer, Nqobile Magwizi, business partner Obey Chimuka, and the corporate entities Fossil Agro and Fossil Contracting.

Although the US terminated its Zimbabwe-specific sanctions programme in March 2024, it immediately redesignated Tagwirei, Mpunga, Sakunda Holdings, and their associated individuals and entities under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (Executive Order 13818).

The designation was enforced due to his alleged involvement in corruption and facilitation of the transfer of corruption proceeds.

More recently, in March 2026, Tagwirei was added to the US System for Award Management (SAM) procurement exclusions list, effectively barring him from participating in US federal procurement.

Tagwirei has also faced legal restrictions from the UK. In July 2021, the British government placed him on its sanctions list under the Global Anti-Corruption sanctions regime, stating that he had profited from the misappropriation of property when Sakunda Holdings redeemed Government of Zimbabwe Treasury Bills at up to ten times their official value.

The UK maintained that Tagwirei’s actions accelerated the devaluation of Zimbabwe’s currency and drove up the price of essential goods for ordinary citizens.

Furthermore, on 9 April 2025, Tagwirei was subjected to director disqualification sanctions under the UK’s Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018, legally barring him from acting as a director for any UK-registered company or any foreign firm with a substantial connection to the UK.