Zachary Wazara

He was assigned in 1998 to go and set up Mascom Wireless, in which Econet Wireless is part of a consortium that runs Botswana’s largest mobile network. He was appointed the chief operating officer.He also served as Director of Lesotho Telecommunications Corp. He served as Director of Econet Wireless Holdings Ltd. until May 2009.

In 1999 he became the Econet marketing director, and rose to become the Econet Wireless Zimbabwe COO in October 1999 until July 2000 when he was appointed managing director of Econet Zimbabwe. Two years later, he helped set up Econet Nigeria and was appointed Econet Nigeria chief executive, a position he held for three years.

He left in 2003 and went to South Africa where he was appointed the Econet Wireless Group’s chief operating officer.^[2].

Spirited Age Group

After having served 11 years in the telecommunications sector, Wazara started his own company SpiritAge Group, a technology company which offered services in both the tech sector and the services sector.It is alleged that his business crumbled in less than five years.According to reports, mismanagement which includes awarding a bloated management team hefty salaries and pecks was the biggest contributor to the downfall of the company.

Lawsuits

Against AfrAsia 2014

AFRASIA Bank, formerly Kingdom Bank, was sued by Wazara for about US$79 million for allegedly breaching its obligations in Valley Technologies (Private) Limited, a liquidated telecoms company which was jointly owned by the businessman and the financial institution.^[3] In case number 3330/14 filed at the High Court on April 23 2014, Wazara and his associate companies claimed that AfrAsia failed to provide working capital to Valley Technologies as agreed in their approved business plan.

In the court papers, AfrAsia faceD accusations of diverting US$3,2 million from the US$10 million provided by Afreximbank for Spiritage’s Valley Technologies to Tetrad Investment Bank for the benefit of its directors and managers.

The bank executives allegedly dipped into the facility through a round-tripping financial arrangement which is basically a strategy in which an asset is sold to another business with the agreement that it will be repurchased by the original owner at some point in the future.

Against Royal Bank

In 2015, Wazara through his companies Suremed and Spirit age also approached the courts seeking a $400 000 compensation from collapsed financial institution Royal Bank Limited. According to Royal liquidator’s preliminary report, the bank owed defunct Spiritage $311 387 and another $86 530 was due to Suremed.^[4]

Apparently, Wazara’s brother, Matthew, sat on Royal’s board as a non-executive director, which raised concern over conflict of interest and violation of corporate governance.

References