HARARE – The permanent secretary in the ministry of industry and trade has retained his position on the board of a private company regulated by his ministry, raising serious conflict-of-interest concerns and questions over compliance with public service regulations.
Thomas Utete Wushe, who was appointed permanent secretary on October 6, 2023, is the board chairperson of Amalgamated Regional Trading Holdings (ART). He has been on the board since 2015.
ART owns several major brands, including Exide, Chloride Zimbabwe and Softex.
By continuing to sit on the board of a company operating in a sector overseen by his ministry, Wushe appears to be in breach of the Public Service Act and Public Service Regulations, which prohibit public officers from engaging in outside employment or business activities that interfere with official duties or create conflicts of interest.
The issue is expected to feature prominently at ART’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) scheduled for March 19.
ZimLive has seen correspondence between ART shareholder Simon Hayes and company secretary Abisai Chingwecha in which Hayes proposes Wushe’s “removal from office as a director of the company with effect from the conclusion of the AGM.”
Hayes is also calling for the removal of another long-serving director, Michael Oakley, arguing that both men have exceeded acceptable tenure limits.
“No independent director should serve for 11 years. There is no possibility that these individuals remain independent after all this time,” Hayes wrote.
A legal opinion prepared ahead of the AGM and seen by ZimLive describes Wushe’s conflict of interest as “not merely theoretical; it is functional.”
“As permanent secretary, Wushe is the chief architect of the very industrial policies — import duties, local content regulations and trade licences — that dictate the commercial survival of ART’s subsidiaries, from Chloride Zimbabwe to Softex,” the opinion states.
“In most Commonwealth-aligned civil services, an official moving into a permanent secretary (accounting officer) role is expected to clear their schedule of all private sector directorships to avoid ‘regulatory capture’, where a private company has undue influence over the person writing the industry’s rules.
“When a sitting public officer, responsible for the impartial regulation of an entire sector, simultaneously chairs a major player in that sector, the line between public service and private interest becomes dangerously blurred.”
ART says it adheres to the National Code on Corporate Governance (ZIMCODE), which requires boards to be independent “in character and judgement.”
However, some shareholders question whether a director can genuinely be considered independent when his primary employment involves regulating competitors within the same industry.
Wushe told ZimLive that he had disclosed his ART board position to “the relevant authorities” at the time of his employment, including the then industry and trade minister Sithembiso Nyoni.
Current minister Nqobizitha Ndlovu said he was unaware Wushe sat on the board of a private company.
“If you are correct (about board position) my view is that the wise thing to do would have been to leave the board at the time of his appointment to the ministry,” Ndlovu said.
Wushe conceded that it was “only after you asked these questions that I noticed the possibility of exposure,” but insisted he was “not aware of any injury caused by my role to any private entity since being appointed permanent secretary.”
He hinted that he would soon relinquish the directorship.
“As you are already aware, my board appointment predates my appointment as permanent secretary. This is therefore a legacy issue and is being managed. Before long, a solution will be arrived at,” he said.
He added that over the past two years he had focused on “doing a good job and ensuring that we deliver real growth for all industry players in a fair and transparent manner.”
“The good news is that this matter will be resolved in the next few weeks, especially now that there are new shareholders and an upcoming AGM. This matter will take care of itself before long,” Wushe said.
Wushe’s tenure on the ART board has coincided with a period of sustained financial decline for the company, worsened by a $6 million acquisition of Paper & Tissue assets in 2022 — a venture the company later abandoned “following a prolonged period of underperformance.”
ART’s annual revenues fell from US$46.9 million in 2018, the year preceding de-dollarisation, to US$28.3 million in 2025.
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