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ZIDCO Holdings

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ZIDCO Holdings is a holdings company owned by Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) political party. It is one of the two main holding companies owned by the party, the other being M&S Syndicate. ZIDCO is the parent company of some companies in Zimbabwe, among them FBC Bank, Jongwe Printers and Catercraft.

Background

The Joshi family (Jayan and his brother Manoo), which had provided financial and other support to Zanu during the war of independence was given the mandate to run the party's companies in the early 1980s. The family ran the companies together with former senoir Zanu-PF member, Emmerson Mnangagwa is credited with helping build ZIDCO when he was the party's Secretary for Finance. The Joshi family got Rambhai Patel (a Kenyan Asian), to inject initial capital and last reports on the matter in 2005 said Patel still owned 45% of ZIDCO. Patel owned a London-based company called Unicorn Export-Import which has shares in Zidco. Patel apparently made injected US $50,000 into ZIDCO in 1984.[1]

Sydney Sekeramayi is also said to have been at the 'heart' of ZIDCO. Both Mnangagwa and Sekeramayi were long time confidants of the party's president Robert Mugabe, however Mnangagwa fell out of favour with Mugabe between 2015 and 2017, eventually being fired as vice president in November 2017.

In 1992, reports say that Zanu-PF disclosed that its assets then were worth $486 million.[1]

In 2006, it was reported that Zanu PF had formed shelf companies to warehouse its shares in a bid to evade the sanctions against the partyby the USA and European union. The party's shelf companies included Sovereign, Hustonville, Tescrom, Amelia, Ryobi Investments, Prinfit and M&S Investments.[2]

Mnangagwa is however also credited with the leading the deterioration in value of ZIDCO companies will into the 2000s. A Zanu-PF’s Report of the Committee on Party Investments, debated by the politburo on July 27 2005 and August 3 2005, revealed the companies, supervised by Mnangagwa who was then administration secretary, were a shambles due to gross mismanagement and corruption. The probe team comprised chairman David Karimanzira, the late retired army commander General Solomon Mujuru, Obert Mpofu, Simba Makoni and Thokozile Mathuthu. Corruption by management and incompetence were the main reasons the companies were collapsing, the report said. The Joshi brothers fled the country shortly after the probe began.[3]. One of the Joshi brothers, Manharlal Chunilal, died on November 30 2012 in South Africa. [4]

ZIDCO Shareholders

  • Zanu-PF
  • Rambhai Patel (45%)

ZIDCO Investments and Subsidiaries

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Dumisani Muleya, Zanu PF’s firms under spotlight, Zimbabwe Independent, Published:22 July 2005, Retrieved:12 Nov 2017
  2. ↑ Vincent Kahiya, Zanu PF busts embargo, Zimbabwe Independent, Published:31 March 2006, Retrieved:12 Nov 2017
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Owen Gagare, Zanu PF bigwigs renew fights over companies, Zimbabwe Independent, Published: 7 July 2017, Retrieved: 12 Nov 2017
  4. ↑ Ex-Zanu PF business associate dies, NewsDay, Published:6 Dec 2012 , Retrieved: 12 Nov 2017


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