Firstly, when Sotic bought BNC, it appointed Christopher Fourie and Jozef Clifford Behr to the board. Fourie is a director of Sotic, while Jozef Behr is the company's head of trading.
Fourie, an investment banker, was head of the M&A department at Puma Energy, which is jointly owned by Trafigura and Sonangol, and was a partner of Tagwirei's Sakunda Holdings in Zimbabwe until 2020. Trafigura cut off Sakunda as the United States prepared sanctions against Tagwirei.
BNC also appointed Chimuka, Tagwirei's partner and Landeli's candidate to GDI's board of directors. Another nomination to the board was Craig Meerholz, Sotic's executive director and former African boss at Trafigura.
ZimAlloys, a company already known to be bought by Tagwirei, is also listed under Kuvimba.
It's also worth noting how Brown, the former head of Implats, has been variously portrayed as CEO of Sotic, Landela and now Kuvimba.
Kuvimba: the game plan
So why does Zimbabwe need Kuvimba?
Ncube's rationale, the opaque structure and everything else, is remarkable.
He said the company's earnings would be used to raise money to compensate retirees and even pay for displaced white commercial farmers.
In its 2021 budget, Ncube said it was setting up a $ 75 million fund to compensate some of its depreciated retirees. Farmers who signed a $ 3.5 billion compensation deal would be paid in part by money raised offshore. There was no mention of the use of mineral resources to pay off the debt.
