Telecel is the country’s smallest mobile telecoms firm with 2.4 million subscribers. Earlier this year, Mandiwanzira said the $40 million purchase of Telecel had been done through ZARNet, a struggling Internet Service Provider wholly owned by the government through the ICT Ministry.
In April, pension fund NSSA announced it had put up $30 million to buy the Telecel stake, a deal it described as “too compelling” to pass over. Until the Auditor General’s report, it had been unclear how government had raised the other $10 million.
NSSA chairman Robin Vera said then that the $30 million advanced to ZARnet was not a loan but quasi-equity participation funding, which would give NSSA equity control of Telecel Zimbabwe until certain conditions are met by ZARNet.
“In all circumstances, NSSA will emerge as a significant equity holder in Telecel Zimbabwe Limited”.
On February 25, the Amsterdam-headquartered telecoms giant VimpelCom said the deal was yet to be completed. Mandiwanzira told Parliament that the money for the stake was yet to be transferred to Vimpelcom due to cash shortages in Zimbabwe.
Telecel’s remaining 40 percent is owned by Empowerment Corporation, a consortium of local shareholders. The group has opposed the sale of Vimpelcom’s 60 percent shares, although Mandiwanzira has claimed that they too had approached NSSA to buy their shareholding.
POTRAZ’s part in the purchase of a stake in a company it is supposed to supervise, and its loan to Mandiwanzira, may raise fresh questions about its role as a regulator. The authority already faces criticism of being unfair in how it treats the licensing of operators.-The Source
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