{"id":21319,"date":"2020-03-29T19:38:42","date_gmt":"2020-03-29T17:38:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/zimbabwe\/?p=21319"},"modified":"2020-03-29T19:38:42","modified_gmt":"2020-03-29T17:38:42","slug":"war-over-zisco-intensifies-as-takeover-deal-faces-uncertain-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/war-over-zisco-intensifies-as-takeover-deal-faces-uncertain-future","title":{"rendered":"War over Zisco intensifies as takeover deal faces uncertain future"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is now bare knuckles as the fight for the ownership of the dormant Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (Zisco) mega-million assets last week took an emotional twist, with the board and a business suitor squaring off over a controversial 2017 deal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week, The Standard, working with Information for Development Trust, reported that the Zimbabwean government facilitated a US$225 million deal that would allegedly strip Zisco of its critical assets and transfer them to ZimCoke, a little-known entity based in Harare.<\/p>\n

ZimCoke paid ZW$1 in May 2019 as a transaction fee to take over Zisco\u2019s signature coke ovens and an array of other assets from the integrated steelworks.<\/p>\n

But Gift Mugano, the current Zisco board chairperson, insisted that the deal needed to be reviewed as it did not follow best corporate governance principles and was thus \u201cnull and void\u201d.<\/p>\n

Government has been the major shareholder, with an 89% stake in Zisco, that stopped operations about a decade ago due to widespread mismanagement and political interference.<\/p>\n

After last week\u2019s revelations, Eddie Cross, a former ZimCoke consultant who now sits on the entity\u2019s board, described Mugano as \u201cirresponsible\u201d and \u201cunprofessional\u201d, saying the Zisco board chairperson\u2019s attitude was very \u201cdisappointing\u201d.<\/p>\n

ZimCoke is not flustered by the repeated refusal by Mugano\u2019s board to let them in and take over the targeted assets, according to Cross, and there is no way the deal will be reversed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis deal was approved in May 2017 and signed by both parties in July 2017,\u201d Cross said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt then took us two years to negotiate the assumption of the KfW debt and the final transaction was then approved by the Cabinet in May 2019,\u201d Cross told The Standard.<\/p>\n

Government, as the major shareholder, owes KfW, a German bank, more than US$200 million that ZimCoke had proposed to take on as its own liability in the disputed deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cTransfer documents were signed in July (2017).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are now waiting for a rates clearance certificate and a capital gains tax clearance certificate to be issued to take ownership of the (Zisco) site and then we can start work in earnest,\u201d said Cross.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the required work has been completed,\u201d he added, \u201cand this process should be complete in the next few weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is now bare knuckles as the fight for the ownership of the dormant Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (Zisco) mega-million assets last week took an emotional twist, with the board and a business suitor squaring off over a controversial 2017 deal. Last week, The Standard, working with Information for Development Trust, reported that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":21321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[1396],"class_list":{"0":"post-21319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-policy","9":"tag-zisco"},"yoast_head":"\nWar over Zisco intensifies as takeover deal faces uncertain future - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It is now bare knuckles as the fight for the ownership of the dormant Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (Zisco) mega-million assets last week\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/war-over-zisco-intensifies-as-takeover-deal-faces-uncertain-future\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"War over Zisco intensifies as takeover deal faces uncertain future\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It is now bare knuckles as the fight for the ownership of the dormant Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (Zisco) mega-million assets last week\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/war-over-zisco-intensifies-as-takeover-deal-faces-uncertain-future\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-03-29T17:38:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2020\/03\/ziscosteel2-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/war-over-zisco-intensifies-as-takeover-deal-faces-uncertain-future\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/war-over-zisco-intensifies-as-takeover-deal-faces-uncertain-future\",\"name\":\"War over Zisco intensifies as takeover deal faces uncertain future - zimbabwe\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/war-over-zisco-intensifies-as-takeover-deal-faces-uncertain-future#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/war-over-zisco-intensifies-as-takeover-deal-faces-uncertain-future#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2020\/03\/ziscosteel2-1.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-03-29T17:38:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-03-29T17:38:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/2e02b5816e71b1149d79877f669a85e4\"},\"description\":\"It is now bare knuckles as the fight for the ownership of the dormant Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (Zisco) mega-million assets last week\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/war-over-zisco-intensifies-as-takeover-deal-faces-uncertain-future#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/war-over-zisco-intensifies-as-takeover-deal-faces-uncertain-future\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/war-over-zisco-intensifies-as-takeover-deal-faces-uncertain-future#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2020\/03\/ziscosteel2-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2020\/03\/ziscosteel2-1.png\",\"width\":600,\"height\":400},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/war-over-zisco-intensifies-as-takeover-deal-faces-uncertain-future#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"War over Zisco intensifies as takeover deal faces uncertain future\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/\",\"name\":\"zimbabwe\",\"description\":\"\u0623\u062e\u0628\u0627\u0631 \u064a\u0648\u0645\u064a\u0629 \u0639\u0644\u0649 \u0645\u062f\u0627\u0631 \u0627\u0644\u0633\u0627\u0639\u0629\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/2e02b5816e71b1149d79877f669a85e4\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"War over Zisco intensifies as takeover deal faces uncertain future - zimbabwe","description":"It is now bare knuckles as the fight for the ownership of the dormant Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (Zisco) mega-million assets last week","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/war-over-zisco-intensifies-as-takeover-deal-faces-uncertain-future","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"War over Zisco intensifies as takeover deal faces uncertain future","og_description":"It is now bare knuckles as the fight for the ownership of the dormant Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (Zisco) mega-million assets last week","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/war-over-zisco-intensifies-as-takeover-deal-faces-uncertain-future","og_site_name":"zimbabwe","article_published_time":"2020-03-29T17:38:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2020\/03\/ziscosteel2-1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/war-over-zisco-intensifies-as-takeover-deal-faces-uncertain-future","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/war-over-zisco-intensifies-as-takeover-deal-faces-uncertain-future","name":"War over Zisco intensifies as takeover deal faces uncertain future - zimbabwe","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/war-over-zisco-intensifies-as-takeover-deal-faces-uncertain-future#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/war-over-zisco-intensifies-as-takeover-deal-faces-uncertain-future#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2020\/03\/ziscosteel2-1.png","datePublished":"2020-03-29T17:38:42+00:00","dateModified":"2020-03-29T17:38:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/2e02b5816e71b1149d79877f669a85e4"},"description":"It is now bare knuckles as the fight for the ownership of the dormant Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (Zisco) mega-million assets last week","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/war-over-zisco-intensifies-as-takeover-deal-faces-uncertain-future#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/war-over-zisco-intensifies-as-takeover-deal-faces-uncertain-future"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/war-over-zisco-intensifies-as-takeover-deal-faces-uncertain-future#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2020\/03\/ziscosteel2-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2020\/03\/ziscosteel2-1.png","width":600,"height":400},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/war-over-zisco-intensifies-as-takeover-deal-faces-uncertain-future#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"War over Zisco intensifies as takeover deal faces uncertain future"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/","name":"zimbabwe","description":"\u0623\u062e\u0628\u0627\u0631 \u064a\u0648\u0645\u064a\u0629 \u0639\u0644\u0649 \u0645\u062f\u0627\u0631 \u0627\u0644\u0633\u0627\u0639\u0629","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/2e02b5816e71b1149d79877f669a85e4","name":"cfeditoren"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}