Zimbabwe government duped by radio wave energy 'invention' — This still image from an official video shared by the Zimbabwean government shows “inventor” Maxwell Chikumbutso, centre, with President Emmerson Mnangagwa

Senior Zimbabwean politicians, including President Emmerson Mnangagwa, appear to have fallen prey to false claims that a “well-known” local “inventor” has developed an “ultrasonic” generator that converts radio waves into electricity.

The farce has led to mockery worldwide of Zimbabwe’s government for falling for what appear to be absurd claims.

Zimbabwean officials claimed the “groundbreaking” invention uses radio waves to power generators, motorbikes and electric cars using a “microsonic” energy device that converts radio frequencies into “pure energy”.

Zimbabwe’s official presidential communications account on social media platform X, @DeptCommsZW, last week posted a statement – and a video – saying that Mnangagwa met with the “inventor”, Maxwell Chikumbutso, at State House to discuss this and other “inventions”.

“President Mnangagwa praised Chikumbutso as a brilliant inventor whose invention has never been seen before anywhere in the world, making it a first of its kind,” said the government post. “The president said such talent needs to be cultivated and nurtured for the benefit of the nation. He further described it as a perfect actualisation on the mantra, ‘Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo’ (‘A country is built by its own people’),” said the post.

In the post – and others belonging to official government accounts – Chikumbudzo is lauded as the brains behind several inventions, including a vehicle made in partnership an unnamed Chinese vehicle manufacturer.

Change of tune

The @DeptCommsZW X account said the vehicle, named Saith, costs US$14 000 to manufacture and that plans to establish a manufacturing plant in Zimbabwe were under way. The rest of Chikumbudzo’s “inventions” would be launched on 10 February, it said.

But the tune from Zimbabwean officials has quickly changed. The Crime Watch Zimbabwe X account on Thursday noted that accounts belonging to President Mnangagwa, the ministry of information & broadcasting and Nick Mangwana, Zimbabwe’s permanent secretary of information, publicity & broadcasting services, have since deleted all posts regarding Chikumbutso and his “invention”.

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Well-known Zimbabwean journalist and Harvard fellow Hopewell Chin’ono responded by slamming Mnangagwa and his team for believing Chikumbudzo’s clearly spurious claims.

“So a whole president was conned by a form 2 (grade 9) and his state security was so useless such that it allowed this to happen? I am just disappointed by the dunces who were defending this conman – it shows how terrible our education system is!” Chin’ono said in a post on X.

pic.twitter.com/UzJLuJZz7F

— Presidential Communications Zimbabwe (@DeptCommsZW) January 28, 2025

A reverse image search that Chino’ono performed on the device Chikumbudzo demonstrated to Mnangagwa led to an Amazon.com result of a portable solar power station sold by Browey for $109.99.

Another deleted post by the ministry of information, publicity and broadcasting services listed other “inventions” by Chikumbudzo, including a radio frequency-powered television, a mobile receiver and an access-point bridge.

A search by Zimbabwean-born engineer Hatach Mujumi , who resides and works in South Africa, revealed the car Chikumbudzo claims to have invented is in fact the Kaiyi X3 Pro, an electric SUV sold for $18 500 on Made-in-China.com, an online marketplace connecting international buyers to Chinese suppliers.

Chikumbudzo claims to have created the generator in 2009 and there are online reports outlining similar claims in that year.

But many Zimbabweans on social media questioned why such an important invention did not gain traction in the intervening 15 years. Some claimed that he lacked the support to take his product to market, while others argued that a good invention speaks for itself and a generator of the kind Chikumbudzo claims to have built would have made waves given the global need for cheap renewable energy.

Chemical engineer and political analyst Kudzai Mutisi was on Wednesday already urging Zimbabwean officials to delete posts regarding Chikumbudzo and his invention to save themselves from embarrassment. Mutisi said if Chikumbudzo had really invented something as groundbreaking as a generator that does not rely on conventional energy sources, then “oil prices would have fallen massively” and the share price of some internal combustion car manufacturers would have plummeted.