Munyeza dragged to court

HARARE – Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed African Sun’s former chief executive officer, Shingi Munyeza, is being dragged to court for breach of contract and trust by a former business associate, the Financial Gazette has learnt.

The business associate, Tom Nyandoro, founder of Convergent Communications Technologies (Private) Limited (CCT), is suing Munyeza and three other former associates, who include Telecel Zimbabwe’s former chief executive officer Francis Mawindi, for a combined US$20 million.

The other two are Phillip Muchemwa and Tapiwa Matambo.

Nyandoro indicated this week that he had approached his lawyers with the intention of suing the four former business associates for US$5 million each after they clandestinely quit CCT to form a rival entity, Kingvile Investments (Pvt) Limited, to directly compete with CCT, without his knowledge.

Describing his former business partners’ conduct as “unethical, unprofessional and greed”, Nyandoro said what irked him most was the fact that the four formed Kingvile before they resigned from CCT.

“This is the core breach of our shareholders agreement, which covers non compete and confidentiality,” said Nyandoro.

Munyeza denied the allegations, saying: “We have reported Tom Nyandoro to the police for extortion and he is trying to use the press for something he should use the courts to address. (He should take) his matter (to court) if he has any case against us.”

No response was available from the other partners to whom the Financial Gazette sent questions via provided e-mail addresses.

Nyandoro however, says the four conspired to undermine CCT’s business by communicating with main vendors, who included Nokia Siemens and Elemental, to stop dealing with CCT but the new entity, Kingvile Investments.

This, he said, was in violation of shareholders agreement and day to day policies and procedures of CCT.

Nyandoro founded CCT together with Muchemwa and registered it in October 2012.

He then invited five others who included Munyeza and Mawindi, all with differing shareholdings.

But in March last year, Muchemwa, Munyeza, Mawindi and Matambo resigned after forming Kingvile.

“CCT is now back to square one and looking for new funders and push ahead but we have lost two years worth of work and we need to recover and be compensated,” Nyandoro said in e-mails seen by the Financial Gazette.

Information seen by the Financial Gazette also revealed that Kingvile, in a letter to Nokia Siemens, one of the key vendors that CCT was negotiating with in setting up a digital network platform, pointed out in an e-mail that the company was ready to launch in December or January 2016, after directors indicated that they were no longer acting on behalf of CCT.

In the e-mail to Nokia Siemens, Matambo, Kingvile’s executive director, wrote: “Please note that with immediate effect, for the purposes of our dealings with you for the provision of the Jasco-managed Nokia LTE RAN/EPC/IMS/VoLTE and supporting elements (Expway eMBMS LTE Broadcast, DragonWave Packet Microwave and Ruckus Carrier Wifi) solution, we will be utilising Kingvile Investments (Pvt) Ltd, a locally registered Zimbabwean company.

“This means CCT (Convergent Communications Technologies) will no longer be a part of our discussions going forward. Kingvile Investments is the entity that will be funded for the purposes of the discussed 4G LTE/Fibre/Triple-Play/ IPTV next generation network roll-out in Zimbabwe, South Africa, and any other targeted markets.

“Kingvile is also the investment vehicle that employs the core team that has been managing this project thus far and into the future, as follows; Mr Phil Muchemwa chairman (funding provider via USA based Investment Banking partner/consortium); Mr Francis Mawindi CEO (former CEO of mobile operator Telecel Zimbabwe); Mr Tapiwa Matambo executive director (project manager for Zimbabwe project); (and) Mr Shingi Munyeza non-executive director (group CEO of listed hospitality group African Sun).

“I therefore strongly urge you to direct any further correspondence only to the above Kingvile company officials, who are also copied in this e-mail. We are no longer in any way associated with the CCT name or with Mr Tom Nyandoro of CCT as we have officially resigned and parted ways with Mr Tom Nyandoro and CCT. It therefore goes without saying that any correspondence between yourself and Mr Tom Nyandoro of CCT will not be received or responded to by us.” Financial Gazette