Mutumwa Mawere

Career

Mutumwa Mawere began his professional career as an Actuarial Student in 1984. He then joined the Industrial Development Corporation of Zimbabwe in late 1984 as a Research Economist and rose through the ranks to become a Senior Research Economist in 1987 before joining the Merchant Bank of Central Africa in the same year as a Corporate Finance Executive. In 1988, he joined the World Bank as a Young Professional. After completing the program in 1989, he was appointed as an Investment Officer for the International Finance Corporation, the private sector lending arm of the World Bank. He rose through the ranks to become a Senior Investment Officer in 1994. In 1995, he resigned from the World Bank and immigrated to South Africa where he has been based since.^[3]

Business

In 1995, Mutumwa founded Africa Resources Limited (ARL), an investment holding company incorporated under the laws of the British Virgin Island, before moving to South Africa. In August 1995, he approached T & N Plc the UK domiciled parent company of Shabanie & Mashaba Mines Private Limited (SMM) with a proposal to acquire the company's Zimbabwean subsidiaries that is the asbestos mines, two Zimbabwean industrial companies, and a Zambian manufacturing company. Negotiations began in September 1995.

In November 1995, he formed a partnership with Investec Bank Limited, a South African investment bank, to structure and mobilize financing for a mining private equity fund. While working on the private equity fund, he continued his negotiations with T & N that culminated in an agreement in March 1996 pursuant to which ARL, a company in which he is the sole shareholder, acquired the remaining mining and industrial assets of T & N in Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Since the acquisition of T & N's two UK based companies that were the sole beneficial owners of the Zimbabwean and Zambian companies, the ARL group of companies grew and through acquisitions to become one of the largest and diversified African managed conglomerates with operations in South Africa, UK, Zambia, Namibia, and Malawi employing about 20,000 people and generating a turnover of about US$400 million.

FBC Bank Acquisition

In 1997, the group established a warehousing and forwarding business, Shipping Consolidated Holdings (“SCH”) with operations in Zimbabwe (container depot) and Durban, South Africa (warehouse). Acquired a 100% stake in a cellular service provider, CST Cellular Private Limited, later renamed Firstel Cellular Zimbabwe and was the promoter, sponsor, and investor in a greenfield commercial bank, FBC Bank (“FBC”). FBC was registered as a commercial bank in February 1997 in accordance with the Zimbabwe Banking Act. FBC was one of the first three commercial banks to be provided with an operating license by the Registrar of Banks and Financial Institutions since 1981. Since opening its first branch in August 1997, FBC established 14 branch locations countrywide.

As part of the acquisition from T & N, ARL acquired: (1) Tube and Pipe Industries (TPI) (www.tubepipe.co.zw), a wholly owned Zimbabwean company, established in 1968 as Morewear Tubes (Pvt) Ltd. It commenced operations in 1972 at the current premises in Harare's Willowvale industrial site. The company changed its name to Tube and Pipe Industries in 1978 after being acquired by Turner and Newall (Manchester - UK).^[3]

Mawere was the pioneer of an initiative to mobilize investment funds from Zimbabweans in the diaspora through a special purpose vehicle, Africa Resources Investments Limited (ARIL) that was established in 1996. The fund was launched in 1997 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Through this initiative, a special purpose vehicle was established in Zimbabwe in 1998 to deploy the funds mobilized from the diaspora into investments. The vehicle, Ukubambana-Kubatana Investments Private Limited (UKI), was incorporated as an investment holding company through which investments were made in the financial services industry including taking a significant shareholding in FBC Bank.

Nicoz Merger

In 2000, the group made a significant inroad into the financial services sector by acquiring the largest stake in the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Zimre Holdings Limited (Zimre) (www.zhl.co.zw) company that was formerly a state-owned company that was privatized by the state together with Dairiboard, Cottco, Rainbow Tourism Group. The government subsequently sold its controlling stake in Zimre and ARL through UKI and Endurite Properties became the largest shareholder of the listed company. ARL then unbundled the Zimre Group and listed the life company, Fidelity Life, and merged Nicoz Insurance Company with Diamond Insurance, a wholly owned subsidiary of ARL, to form Nicoz Diamond Limited, a company that was then subsequently listed on the ZSE.^[3]

Companies Acquired

In 2001, the Group established FSI Agricom Holdings (Private) Limited (Oct. 2001) as a vehicle to investing in commercial agriculture as well as provide a wholesale supply chain and trading solution to the new black farmers. During the same year, the Group established a stockbroking firm, UKI Securities (Private) Limited that was subsequently acquired by Fidelity Life Asset Management Private Limited (FLAM), a wholly owned subsidiary of Zimre. In 2002, a number of acquisitions was made and new businesses were established by the group including the following:

• (1) Cernol Chemicals – 100% - a manufacturer of industrial and domestic cleaning chemicals;
• (2) CFI Holdings Limited
• (3) Midsec Security and Investigations services company;
• (4) Media Africa Group was established to house the group's newspaper interests in the two weekly titles: The Business Tribune and the Weekend Tribune;
• (5) Words and Images was established as a PR company for the group and third-party clients;
• (6) Fortress Travel and Tours, a travel services company was established to provide solutions to the group and third parties;
• (7) Best Practices Human Resources and Management Consultants was established to provide human resources solutions to the group and third parties;
• (8) Petter Transport and Logistics was established to provide transport and logistics solutions to the group as well as third parties; *(9) First Banking Corporation (www.firstbank.co.zw) was listed on the ZSE; and
• (10) Tandem, a trailer manufacturer, was acquired.

In 2003, Schweppes Zimbabwe Limited was acquired from the Coca-Cola Company. FEIC (Private) Limited, a textbook and office equipment sales, printing and publishing company. In 2004, the entire group was nationalized by the government of Zimbabwe. The nationalization was challenged in a number of litigations in Zambia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.

Philanthropy Activities

In 2004, Mawere was one of the founder of Africa Heritage Society (www.africaheritage.com), a not-for-profit organization organized under the laws of South Africa. He was also a founding director of AHI (www.ahinvestments.co.za), an investment holding company with interests in the logistics, manufacturing and supply chain businesses in South Africa. .^[3]

Business Seizure

In 2004 Maweres business was accused of defrauding Zimbabwe of more than Z$300 billion. In May 2004, Zimbabwean authorities asked for Mawere's extradition from South Africa but did not succeed and by presidential decree, major parts of his businesses came under government control. These included his asbestos mine which he had acquired in 1997 from a British and a bank. In a report, Mawere indicated that his business was used to pay the debt Zimbabwe owed the IMF.

"There is no doubt that my companies have been seized by the state, and the beneficiary of the export proceeds is now the state. This can hardly be described as a voluntary submission,"If this can happen to me, an African investor, what about other companies?" he asked in an interview in Washington on Wednesday after he met with members of the Congressional Black Caucus. "Can you sleep knowing your government is up to mischief?

"People thought this was only a white problem. Now it is happening to black people," he said. "The government can take your rights any day. The other side of all this is that blacks are being victimized by blacks, and property rights are being compromised with impunity. If I don't express this, what future do we have as Africans in Africa? We cannot all drive taxis in America. There is a black face to the victims of Mugabe," he said. ^[4]

Mutumwa wrote many articles pertaining to his experience. In May 2010 Mutumwa was 'despecified' which meant he could return to Zimbabwe without the fear of being arrested. However, his companies remained under government ownership. It was reported that the government intended to find a Chinese investor for the companies.^[1]

Alleged Debt by Genius Kadungure

In February 2018 Mutumwa Mawere accused Genius Kadungure for failing to pay him R340 000. The two had a falling out and exchanged words on social media site Twitter after Mawere asked Kadungure to pay back what he owes. Kadungure claimed that he had paid back all that he owed and said that the money could have gone to meeting part of Mawere’s legal fees when he was arrested in South Africa.

We were once very close and in 2012, 2013 I was facing cash flow problems and he gave me $340 000, which I had to repay plus 15 percent interest per month. After about four months I was back on my feet and paid him bank in batches, starting with R100 000, then R70 000 and so forth.

Some of the money I paid when he was in prison in South Africa over a fraud case and his office people used it, probably to settle his legal fees. We have not met since 2015 and for him to suddenly make claims on Twitter Is unfortunate. Who seeks a settlement on social media and not courts of law?

I find it strange that he would think that all the money I paid him was just the interest when I had the money for just four months.

This is just aimed at bringing me down. Where I am right now I can even give him R340 000 because it’s small money and I can do that to thank him for rescuing me when I had problems. But that is not to say I owe him.

Otherwise, if he feels I owe him the money he should go to the police and not Twitter. I have moved back to Zimbabwe but I am here and not running from anyone. I am ready for him, ready to face the court challenge, not these Twitter funnies. He is abusing Twitter and that is the problem with free Internet but he (Mawere) needs to find somewhere else to play.

References