President Emmerson Mnangagwa has exempted companies under the Mutapa Investment Fund (formerly the Sovereign Wealth Fund) from the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act in Zimbabwe. This means that the companies under the fund, including TelOne, Kuvimba Mining, Petrotrade, and Noczim, are no longer required to follow the procurement procedures outlined by the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe when acquiring goods and services.
The decision to exempt these companies from open public procurement procedures was announced in General Notice 1546 of 2023, published in a government gazette on September 29, 2023. The notice seen by Pindula News states that the exemption was granted because the mentioned public entity operates in competitive markets and is deemed to require an exemption under the specified grounds of the Act. Read General Notice 1546 of 2023:
PUBLIC PROCUREMENT AND DISPOSAL OF PUBLIC ASSETS ACT [CHAPTER 22:23]
Public Entities Exempted from Application of Act
HIS EXCELLENCY THE HONOURABLE EMMERSON DAMBUDZO MNANGAGWA,G.C.Z.M., President of Zimbabwe and Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces of Zimbabwe.
WHEREAS it is provided by section 3(9) of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public AssetsAct [Chapter22:23], that the President may, after consultation with the Authority, by notice in the Gazette, exempt from the application of the Act a prescribed public entity on specified grounds;
AND WHEREAS the public entity below mentioned is operating in competitive markets and accordingly needs to be prescribed for the purposes of exemption by virtue of section 3(9) abovementioned:
NOW, THEREFORE, under and by virtue of the powers vested in the President as aforesaid, I do hereby give notice that the public entity mentioned below is exempted from the application of the Act—
Mutapa Investment Fund, established under the Sovereign Wealth Fund Act of Zimbabwe [Chapter 22:20].
E. D. MNANGAGWA, 29-9-2023. President of the Republic of Zimbabwe.