Former TIMB boss Gudu faces criminal investigation over ‘missing’ staff bus

37By Nyasha ChumaHARARE — Former Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) chief executive Meanwell Gudu is being haunted by a litany of financial scandals that have placed him squarely in the crosshairs of law enforcement, with the chances of arrest looming large over his legacy, Express Mail Zim can report.According to a damning latest Auditor-General’s report, Gudu’s is said to have made the ‘disappearance’ of a fully paid for staff bus that was never delivered.The audit, covering the year ended December 31 2025, explicitly flagged the missing vehicle under its procurement review, noting that the board has made zero progress in recovering either the asset or the millions in public funds that were handed over to the supplier.This failure to act during Gudu’s watch has transformed the undelivered bus into a haunting case for Gudu which is piling pressure on institutional collapse through legacy issues .The report further reveals that while Gudu led the board for four years, officials sat idly by as he allegedly hemorrhaged cash through fraud and systemic internal control failures.The audit shows that TIMB failed to resolve two-thirds of the queries raised against it since 2021, leaving a backlog of unresolved financial irregularities that now threaten to trigger a criminal investigation into Gudu.Adding to the weight of evidence against Gudu, the report exposes millions in funds erroneously transferred to former employees that remain uncollected, highlighting a persistent failure in financial management during his leadership.Furthermore, TIMB’s grower loan recovery program is in a state of catastrophic default under his inherited legacy, with the regulator recovering just 10% of local currency loans and a paltry 4% of U.S. dollar loans, meaning 96 cents of every dollar lent is completely uncollected.As the current tobacco selling season gets underway, state auditors have issued a stern rebuke, confirming that despite receiving a clean financial reporting opinion, the board has made no significant progress in plugging these multi-million-dollar leakages.Gudu’s allegations of the missing bus, unrecovered transfers and a collapsed loan system have become a sticking point.Efforts to reach for comment Gudu hit a snag as his mobile phone was unreachable at the time of writing.MeanwhileguduTIMB HARARE — Former Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) chief executive Meanwell Gudu is being haunted by a litany of financial scandals that have placed him squarely in the crosshairs of law enforcement, with the chances of arrest looming large over his legacy, Express Mail Zim can report. According to a damning latest Auditor-General’s report, Gudu’s is said to have made the ‘disappearance’ of a fully paid for staff bus that was never delivered.

The audit, covering the year ended December 31 2025, explicitly flagged the missing vehicle under its procurement review, noting that the board has made zero progress in recovering either the asset or the millions in public funds that were handed over to the supplier. This failure to act during Gudu’s watch has transformed the undelivered bus into a haunting case for Gudu which is piling pressure on institutional collapse through legacy issues . The report further reveals that while Gudu led the board for four years, officials sat idly by as he allegedly hemorrhaged cash through fraud and systemic internal control failures.

The audit shows that TIMB failed to resolve two-thirds of the queries raised against it since 2021, leaving a backlog of unresolved financial irregularities that now threaten to trigger a criminal investigation into Gudu. Adding to the weight of evidence against Gudu, the report exposes millions in funds erroneously transferred to former employees that remain uncollected, highlighting a persistent failure in financial management during his leadership. Furthermore, TIMB’s grower loan recovery program is in a state of catastrophic default under his inherited legacy, with the regulator recovering just 10% of local currency loans and a paltry 4% of U.S.

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dollar loans, meaning 96 cents of every dollar lent is completely uncollected. As the current tobacco selling season gets underway, state auditors have issued a stern rebuke, confirming that despite receiving a clean financial reporting opinion, the board has made no significant progress in plugging these multi-million-dollar leakages. Gudu’s allegations of the missing bus, unrecovered transfers and a collapsed loan system have become a sticking point. Efforts to reach for comment Gudu hit a snag as his mobile phone was unreachable at the time of writing.

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