WAR veterans who had just received a windfall in gratuities of Z$50 000, then enough to purchase a six-roomed house in a high-density suburb, made a move that could have changed their lives forever. They formed Zexcom Investment Fund Limited.
By BLESSED MHLANGA
In 1998, nearly 4 388 ex-combatants pooled their resources together, each depositing their contributions through then Kingdom Bank to form the company, which by 2001 was valued at $15 million and had interests in telecoms, property and beverages.
The fairytale was to end following disputes at Zexcom board level and the company was placed under judicial management together with the hopes of 54-year-old Cornelius Ndlovu, whose war name was MaNdlovu
She invested her entire gratuity of $50 000 into Zexcom with the hope that as she grew older, the company would pay dividends to take care of her and her grandchildren.
Ndlovu was close to tears as the war veterans, who are now surviving in the shadows of poverty gathered under a tree at Freedom Square in Harare last week to try and get a solution on how to regain control of their company, which is now subject of a legal battle between the owners and provisional judicial manager Barbra Lunga.
“I want us to get this company back so that we can control it and once that is achieved we will bring the people who stripped it of its assets and spent my investment to account,” she said.
“I have a family and grandchildren who need school fees and food and that investment would have allowed me to manage these needs.”
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Peter Matambo was equally angry and directed his bitterness at the judiciary, which he believes has not done enough to protect them and their company.
“We put money into this company with the hope that it would turn around our lives and make us enjoy the sweat and blood of war, but now we are poorer after the little we had was wiped clean with the help of the judiciary,” he said.
Matambo called on his peers to join him in a massive demonstration against alleged corruption within the judicial system. He received immediate support from the over 300 war veterans who gathered at the square.
A report dated March 2016 from then Bulawayo acting deputy master of High Court to the permanent secretary of Justice and Legal and Parliamentary Affairs detailed the alleged systematic asset striping of Zexcom by its judicial managers.
“Sometime in 2011 under case no. HC 772/01, Canaan Mudama and 69 other applied for the company Zexcom Foundation Investment Fund to be placed under provisional judicial management… when an application was made as the company’s statement of affairs showed that it was a sound company,which needed somebody to just manage it properly,” reads the report also lodged with the High Court.
“Then there was rampant sale of assets by the judicial managers which made the shareholders to apply to court under case number HC 8993/02.
“It is the issue of selling of assets which continues to haunt Zexcom. Judicial management proceeded despite complaints from shareholders of the company,” the deputy master wrote.
Willard Machivenyika (Mica Hondo), who travelled all the way from Mutare was not happy that his investment was squandered under the watch of the justice system.
He is part of many war veterans who are angry at President Robert Mugabe, who in his capacity as the patron of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association, failed to intervene to save the company.
“We started the issue of indigenisation before government even spoke about it. We bought shares in big corporates and acquired property and vehicles but now all that has been reduced to nothing because government has allowed it and our patron is quiet,” Machivenyika said.
The war veterans have also written numerous letters to Justice Rita Makarau, the Judiciary Service Commission secretary, Jacob Mudenda (Speaker of the National Assembly), Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku, Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Mugabe, accusing some judges of corruption.
In December 2015, Makarau, in response to Zexcom chairman, Jonah Gumo’s letter said her office could not interfere in matters before the courts and instead advised them to appeal through the Supreme Court.
“The matters and disputes referred in your letter are currently before the courts and as administrators, we are not able to interfere with decisions made by the courts,” she wrote.
“Since you are aggrieved by these decisions, we advise you to approach the Supreme Court and note an appeal. “We further encourage you to report to the police for investigations to be carried out regarding your suspicions that crimes might have been committed.”
Immediately, Gumo reported the matter to the police and received a letter from one Assistant Commissioner T Ndou of the criminal investigation department.
“This serves to acknowledge receipt of your complaint against judges of the High Court dated September 2015. Be advised that an investigation into the matter has been instituted and you will be advised of the outcome in due course,” reads part of the letter.
As government struggles to fulfil its constitutional commitment to take care of war veterans owing to its restricted fiscal space, children of those who started Zexcom are wallowing in poverty.
