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NewsDay

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AAG opposes Zimre stake sale

Business
AAG has requested the government to reverse the sale of its Zimre Holdings (ZHL) stake to a consortium led by Simon and Hamish Rudland.

THE Affirmative Action Group (AAG) has requested the government to reverse the sale of its Zimre Holdings (ZHL) stake to a consortium led by Simon and Hamish Rudland.

BY MTHADAZO NYONI

The consortium emerged with 40,16% after it underwrote ZHL’s $15 million rights issue. Government and the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) did not follow their rights and were diluted. As at June 30, government and NSSA now had 21,67% and 13,32% respectively in ZHL.

But AAG is miffed that the consortium now has 40,16% saying the move represents “a most brazen, unconscionable, and unpardonable attack on the policing reflex of local economic empowerment on the high-noon”.

“We write to your good office to register our deep and profound indignation at the takeover of Zimre Holdings by an economic cabal that seeks to strip it of its assets while our government is lulled into the false narrative of a private investment into the same,” reads part of the letter signed by AAG vice-president Sam Ncube and addressed to Indigenisation minister Patrick Zhuwao, Labour minister Prisca Mupfumira, Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr Misheck Sibanda and NSSA board chairman Robin Vela.

“The asset is worth a billion for crying out loud. All told and weighed in, it amounts to a most blatant reversal of the few gains of the indigenous entrepreneurial spirit and a rightful kick in the mid-section of the body-politic of those who believe we should and can do more by our people,” said AAG.

The group said if the issue was not addressed, it would mobilise to attack the decision and agitate for public outcry against the action.

AAG said in the national interest, the takeover of ZHL for $15 million needed to be stopped or restructured altogether.

“We cannot afford to wean our best assets and leave the best of our local management assets to fall afoul of the unchecked and sharpened appetites of the economic pirates of yesteryear dressed in black faces.”

AAG said NSSA should be alive to delivering healthy returns for clients while also contributing to broader economic development and empowerment and the ZHL target was one such an opportunity.

ZHL recorded a loss after tax of $0,11 million in the six months to June 30 compared to a profit of $2,39 million in the same period the previous year.