Meet Simon Rudland – The Wealthy Zimbabwean Who Bankrolls The Whole Country & Is “Owed US$250 Million At Any Time By Zimbabwe’s Government”

By iHarare On Mar 24, 2023

Meet Simon Rudland- The Wealthy Zimbabwean Who Is Owed US $250 Million At Any Time By Zimbabwe “s Government. Simon George Wilburn Rudland is a prominent Zimbabwean businessman who has been making headlines in recent years. According to Ewan MacMillan, a gold smuggler who was exposed on the documentary, Rudland actually bankrolls the Zimbabwe government.

Meet Simon Rudland – The Wealthy Zimbabwean Who Is Owed US$250 Million At Any Time By Zimbabwe’s Government

Simon George Wilburn Rudland is a prominent Zimbabwean businessman who has been making headlines in recent years. Rudland’s name was thrown into the spotlight after he was accused of being part of the Gold Mafia in Al Jazeera’s explosive documentary on Zimbabwe’s illegal gold trade.

According to Ewan MacMillan, a gold smuggler who was exposed on the documentary, Rudland actually bankrolls the Zimbabwe government. Said, MacMillan

“He bankrolls this whole country. If he wants, he phones up the governor, the reserve bank governor.

‘Hi, I want a meeting. Okay, fine. What time?’

‘I am coming at 11. Okay, fine.’

“He is massive. He is one mother, my friend. You have no idea, how big he is.

But just who is Simon Rudland?

Rudland has interests in logistics, agriculture, and finance. He is the co-owner of Gold Leaf Tobacco Zimbabwe and a member of the Fair Trade Independent Tobacco Association (FITA). He also has interests in Pioneer Transport.

Rudland has a brother named Hamish, who is also very wealthy and at one time attempted to take over one of Southern Africa’s biggest sugar producers, Tongaat Hulett. Hamish Rudland won a shareholder vote to underwrite and effectively take control of Tongaat Hulett. However, the Takeover Regulation Panel (TRP) reversed its initial decision after discovering that Simon Rudland’s three daughters were indirect shareholders in Magister via a trust. The TRP denied Magister’s request for a relaxation of SA’s takeover rules, and Rudland indicated that he would be challenging the decision.

Simon and Hamish Rudland’s mother, Adrienne, owns a United Arab Emirates company called Braemar.

•Who are Zimbabwe’s Gold Mafia Exposed In Al Jazeera Documentary?

Rudland was married to Leigh-Ann Patricia Schoeman in Harare on 3 September 1992. In 2014, Leigh-Ann Patricia Schoeman sued Rudland for the dissolution of the marriage and other ancillary relief.

She alleged that the marriage relationship had irretrievably broken down to an extent that there was no reasonable possibility of the restoration of a normal marriage relationship between them.

She further alleged that Rudland had committed adultery, subjected Schoeman to physical and mental cruelty, deserted the matrimonial home, refused to resume cohabitation with her, assaulted and denied his paternity of Hannah Rudland, and had engaged in illegal business activities.

Schoeman said they had not lived together for a period in excess of 30 months and that Rudland had started dating another woman.

As part of the divorce settlement, Leigh-Ann Patricia Schoeman was awarded custody of the minor child Emma. Rudland agreed to pay for all of the reasonable maintenance requirements of the said minor child, including her medical, dental, and educational costs, until she was self-supporting.

Schoeman was awarded several immovable properties and Simon Rudland was ordered to pay a sum of US$5 million within 12 months of the divorce.

Rudland co-owns Gold Leaf Tobacco Zimbabwe (GLTC) with Yakub Mahomed. He and his brother Hamish Rudland formed Pioneer Transport in 1995, growing their business into Pioneer Corporation Africa through the acquisitions of other leading transport businesses, including Unifreight, owners of Swift Transport, Bulwark, and Clan.

In 2015, Simon Rudland launched the Rudland & George cigarette brand. This was after the Rudlands lost a case over the use of the name RG cigarettes. The court ruled that the use of the name caused prejudice to the Remington Gold brand owned by the Zimbabwean company Savanna Tobacco.

Rudland have been active investors on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, holding significant stakes in assets such as Zimre through his investment vehicle Day River Corporation and in agriculture company CFI.

On 14 August 2019, Rudland was seriously injured when two men shot at him outside FITA’s offices in South Africa. He was ambushed by a gunman who fired nine shots at him when he pulled his black Porsche Boxster into the driveway of the FITA offices. He was hospitalized and kept in intensive care.

Simon Rudland was shot three times, twice in the back and once in the neck, when the bullet passed through the headrest and narrowly missed his spine by one millimetre. Rudland claimed he had not directly received any death threats but that he was not wholly shocked by the assassination attempt.

According to Ewan MacMillian, a gold smuggler who was exposed in the Al Jazeera documentary, Rudland actually bankrolls the Zimbabwe government. Said MacMillan,

“The government is broke here. They don’t have enough money to buy the gold.

“He [Rudland] says, ‘Okay, don’t worry. I’ll lend you the money to buy the gold.’

“He gives the Fidelity the money to buy the gold for him to export.

“Fidelity’s debt with him is, at any one time, US$200 million to US$250 million.

“He is huge.”

The post Meet Simon Rudland – The Wealthy Zimbabwean Who Bankrolls The Whole Country & Is “Owed US$250 Million At Any Time By Zimbabwe’s Government” appeared first on iHarare News.