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Business Writer

Zesa Holdings has joined three of its subsidiaries under the ownership of the Mutapa Investment Fund, the national sovereign wealth fund, with only the national grid and sales utility Zimbabwe Electricity Distribution and Transmission Company, remaining under direct State control.

In Statutory Instrument 51 gazetted on Friday last week, President Mnangagwa added the State shareholding in seven companies to the list of assets of the Mutapa Investment Fund. Besides the shareholdings in Zesa Holdings and subsidiary Zesa Enterprises, a manufacturer, the President added five companies owned by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

These are: Aurex, a major jewellery maker; Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of Zimbabwe; Fidelity Gold Refinery; and HomeLink Private Limited and HomeLink Finance.

Zesa had last September seen two subsidiaries move to Mutapa: the Zimbabwe Power Company, which owns and runs Kariba South and Hwange Thermal Power stations and owns the sites of the three now closed small thermals, and PowerTel, which owns, leases out and manages the fibre optic network linked to the national grid.

The Mutapa Investment Fund was a major upgrade and renaming done in September last year of the original 2014 Sovereign Wealth Fund. This upgrade saw the transfer of Government shareholdings in a block of State-owned entities and former parastatals to the fund, along with other Government investments.

NetOne

The purpose of using Mutapa to own the investments, is to help ensure that they are profitable and well-run.

Such sovereign wealth funds are used in several countries to build up a portfolio of investments for the benefit of the people and at times have been used to ensure that any sudden temporary bursts of wealth, such as an oil strike, result in investments that will continue to provide national income when that resource is exhausted.

After the transfers in September last year and this week, Mutapa Investment Fund now owns major entities such as the National Railways of Zimbabwe, Air Zimbabwe, Zesa, POSB and NetOne, among commercialised parastatals.

It now also has a range of mining interests, including the transferred State shares in Hwange Colliery Company and Kuvimba Mining House, a joint venture with private investors, plus major agricultural concerns such as the State shareholding in Cottco.

Mutapa chief executive is Dr John Mangudya, the outgoing governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. — Harare Bureau