A STORM is brewing at Zimre Holdings Limited (ZHL) as it emerged yesterday that the company appointed to select the new chief executive officer is linked to the financial services group’s single largest individual shareholders.
BY NDAMU SANDU
ZHL chief executive officer Albert Nduna is retiring at the end of the year after leading the group for 31 years.
The recruitment of the new CEO comes after a consortium led by Unifreight Africa Limited director Hamish Rudland emerged with 40,16% after underwriting ZHL’s $15 million capital-raising initiative.
High Post Consultants have been engaged to find the new CEO who will be in place in the first quarter of next year, according to ZHL board chairman Ben Kumalo.
The appointment of High Post Consultants is being questioned as there seems to be conflict of interest.
High Post Consultants is led by Patrick Chingoka who is the board chairman of transport and logistics concern Unifreight Africa Limited in which Rudland is a director. Unifreight Africa Limited was born last year after the Rudland-founded Pioneer Corporation Africa acquired Unifreight. It then changed its name to Unifreight Africa Limited.
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In a letter to Misheck Sibanda, Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, the Affirmative Action Group blasted the appointment of High Post Consultants to headhunt for the new CEO saying Chingoka was conflicted and a “known and willing corporate acolyte of Simon and Hamish Rudland”.
Asked how High Post Consultants had been selected to look for Nduna’s successor, Kumalo had no response.
When it was put across that there seemed to be conflict of interest in the arrangement, Kumalo said: “The board, and not Mr Chingoka, will make the decision on who is employed as our next CEO of ZHL.”
Kumalo said someone was feeding NewsDay with information “that is aimed at painting ZHL in bad light”.
“This is an important sector and is listed on the ZSE and therefore calls for responsible reporting,” he said.
But while Kumalo was evasive on how the consultant was selected to hunt for the new ZHL boss, the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) said it was investigating the circumstances surrounding the entry of the Rudland-led consortium into ZHL. NSSA board chairman Robin Vela said the authority was “concerned with the rights issue” that saw the Rudland-led consortium becoming underwriters.
“We are investigating both internally and with other authorities such as the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Stock Exchange and Securities and Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe to understand how that transaction happened. We are unhappy with that,” he said.
“One day we are told NMB are the underwriters, a day later we have Rudland as 40% shareholder.”
Vela said NSSA was concerned about ZHL, related-party issues and how the transaction came about.
“It’s far from over from where we sit,” he said.
As at June 30, government and NSSA had 21,67% and 13,32% respectively in ZHL after they elected to follow their rights in the $15 million cash call.
