Zanu PF probe targets Mugabe heir

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By Staff Reporter
05/04/04
A PROBE announced by the ruling Zanu PF party to investigate its own companies is targeted at President Robert Mugabe’s heir apparent Emmerson Mnangagwa, New Zimbabwe.com can reveal.

Mnangagwa who is currently the Speaker of Parliament was the Zanu PF secretary for finance until two years ago. His position has become very uncertain in recent weeks following a string of corruption allegations and claims that he attempted a palace coup with members of the opposition.

“This investigation is the indictment and trial of Emmerson Mnangagwa,” a senior member of the party’s decision making organ the Politburo said.

He pointed out that the five-member committee was filled with Mnangagwa’s political opponents, notably retired army general Solomon Mujuru. The other members of the committee are by finance secretary David Karimanzira, the former Finance Minister Simba Makoni, Matabeleland North governor, Obert Mpofu and the party’s deputy secretary for transport and welfare, Thoko Mathuthu.

“The outcome is certain, this is the shaming of Emmerson Mnangagwa and the end of his political career,” the official said.

Mnangagwa not only knows, both literally and figuratively, but is also privy to all the party's financial secrets.

It emerged this week that two of Mnangagwa’s side kicks, Jayant Joshi, a prominent managing director of strategic Zanu PF holding company, Zidco and his brother Manharlal Chunibal (Manoo) Joshi had fled the country.

Jayant Joshi, who also sits on the board of First Banking Corporation and a host of other companies associated with Zanu PF, is alleged to have taken the gap after the announcement of the politburo committee.

An intricate web of corporate intrigue has emerged with a fuzzy distinction over the ownership of the companies between Zanu PF or some powerful politicians therein. The man widely perceived as most knowledgeable about Zanu PF’s business octopus is none other than the party’s secretary for administration, Emmerson Mnangagwa.

As finance secretary of the party over a very long time, Mnangagwa was instrumental in weaving the intricate web of Zanu PF’s business interests locally and regionally. He has worked very closely with the Joshi family and is likely to feature prominently in the politburo committee’s investigations.

Zidco was created at the end of the war of independence in 1979 through a joint venture between M&S Syndicate, the first Zanu PF holding company, and a UK-based firm, Unicorn Import/Export. Today Unicorn holds 45 percent of Zidco, while M&S has 55 percent. The London-based company is managed by Chandra Patel, the uncle of Jayant Joshi. In addition to Joshi, the Zidco board currently includes: Mnangagwa; Manoo Joshi, Jayant’s brother; Sydney Sekeramayi, the Minister of Defence; and Dipak Pandya, who is its current financial director and is also a non-executive vice chairman of First Banking Corporation.

Through these two companies the party has a vast range of interests, including Treger Holdings, producers of building materials, hardware etc; Ottawa, a property management company; Catercraft, which runs the catering at Harare airport and also supplies all domestic and international flights out of Harare; and Zidlee Enterprises, which controls the duty free shops at Beit Bridge, Harare City and Harare Airport, and also supplying diplomats with a range of goods. Sources allege that a prominent ruling party politician appears to “run” the company, and others, like his own personal fiefdom with not much information on its operations known by the wider leadership of the party.

Zidco had a 13 percent stake in First Banking Corporation but the latter feared that its links with the Zanu PF entity would spoil its corporate image. Media reports pointed to the fact that the shareholder was offloaded from the bank’s shareholder books but reliable sources insist that the company still has its stake in the financial institution albeit with a new pseudonym. To add meat to the contention, individuals who have always been associated with Zidco, namely Joshi and Pandya still sit on the board. Another Zanu PF investment company, AM Treger, is also reported to own 13 percent shareholding in First Banking Corporation.

AM Treger also owns an 80 percent shareholding of Treger Products, a company that has recently been in the news for foreign currency externalisation that has been linked to certain Zanu PF stalwarts.

The Joshis have always been associated with the business of Zanu PF and they are also running a Zanu PF linked company called Tatos Brothers, which is said to be a wholesaler of cycles and cycle spares, arms and ammunition, as well as hardware. The company is situated in Graniteside and the Joshis are said to be mere fronts for prominent politicians of the party who establish or purchase the businesses under the guise of the party.

A well-placed source said it was very difficult to pinpoint specifically which companies Zanu PF owned because in most of them it is not the sole shareholder but has a controlling or minority stake.

“There are many companies that one does not know who actually owns them. It is all top secret. For instance there is a company called Histonville Investments, which is said to own a 12 percent stake in First Bank, but its all hush-hush about who is behind the company, “said the source.

It has been established that there is another company called Heviba Investments that has been linked to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the illicit trade in minerals that has been reported by the UN. Mnangagwa was named in that UN report.

Attempts at previous Zanu-PF congresses to get the then party’s treasurer, Mnangagwa, to divulge the accounts of Zidco and M & S always failed; though he did reveal in 1992 that Zanu-PF’s assets were then worth Z$486 million.

The Joshis, a family of Malawian Asians with a house in Romford, Essex, Britain, have played a key role in Zidco. Sources say the Joshis were thrown out of Malawi by that country’s late dictator, Hastings Kamuzu Banda in the 1960s. They got involved with Zanu PF through a brother-in law of theirs, one Popatlal, who ran a shop in Maputo that operated as an agency through which Zanu PF received much of its goods from friendly countries and organisations.

Jayant Joshi, who was based in Britain in the 1970s, extended considerable assistance to Zanu activists sent on scholarships to Britain from the guerrilla camps in Mozambique. After independence Popatlal and his wife, a sister to the Joshi brothers, moved to Zimbabwe and it is through this link that Jayant and his brother Manoo became involved with Zanu PF locally.

The Joshi brothers have acted as fronts for many Zanu PF senior politicians and are said to have developed an infamous arrogance in business circles because of their Zanu PF connection.

A former secretary general in Zanu PF, Edgar Tekere, who was expelled from the party for speaking out openly against corruption in government said investigating Zanu PF companies was a welcome move that was however long overdue.

“For a long time, members of the party raised the question why there was no accountability relating to the affair of Zanu PF’s businesses. The whole thing was shrouded in mystery and no audits were done, no books or financial statements were produced.

“I believe that this lack of transparency created a very dangerous situation whereby some of those who were entrusted with running the party’s commercial concerns abused them and turned them into personal fiefdoms,” said Tekere, who hoped the investigations would be taken to their logical conclusions.
Additional reporting by Sunday Mirror
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