HARARE – President Emmerson Mnangagwa has ordered the sale of the People’s Own Savings Bank (POSB) to a consortium fronted by Zanu PF-supporting cleric Morris Brown Gwedegwe, against advice from the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency which questioned the source of funds for his Hebrew Investment Group, ZimLive can reveal.
The POSB, now under the Mutapa Investment Fund, is one of at least eight loss-making parastatals the government has put up for sale.
Instead of a public process to invite bids for POSB, Mnangagwa – through attorney general Virginia Mabiza – handpicked Hebrew Investment Group as the investment partner.
Under the terms of the deal, Hebrew Investment Group will take up 70 percent shareholding in POSB by contributing US$70 million of the US$100 million required to capitalise the bank.
The government of Zimbabwe will remain with a 10 percent stake financed through existing POSB assets while the other $20 million for a 20 percent stake will come from private individuals.
A joint venture agreement signed between Mabiza and Hebrew Investment Group CEO Professor Emile Kue on December 18, 2024, also says Hebrew Investment Group will advance the government of Zimbabwe a US$6 billion loan to be repayed over 30 years.
The loan will attract interest of 0.3 percent per annum and it is to be repaid through the government’s dividends from its POSB shareholding.
ZimLive understands ZIDA questioned the company’s source of funds and tried to stall the signing of the joint venture agreement, but Mnangagwa and Mabiza railroaded it through.
In a February 13, 2025, letter to the POSB CEO and board, Mabiza introduced Hebrew Investment Group as “our joint venture partners with the government of Zimbabwe in support of President E.D. Mnangagwa’s socio-economic development plan.”
Mabiza said Hebrew Investment Group representatives Gwedegwe, CEO Kue and the company’s vice president Professor Israel Kodiaga would visit POSB on a familiarisation tour.
She directed POSB to, among other things, allow for a “first hand examination of the bank’s vaults which are intended to be used for direct monetisation by the Hebrew Investment Group.”
Gwedegwe is a former Anglican bishop kicked out of the church over alleged embezzlement of funds. He was sworn in as a member of the Zimbabwe Defence Commission by Mnangagwa in May 2019.
Last year, the Zimbabwe Council of Churches disassociated itself from Gwedegwe after he attended the Zanu PF annual conference in Bulawayo claiming to be representing the council.
Not much is known about Professor Emile Kue. A native of Ethiopia, he is described online as the president of the National Association of Hebrews in the United States, based in Texas.
A website under development also links him to a “Proposed Hebrew Federal Credit Union… designed to control the US$1.9 trillion spending power of the black community in the United States for the future of the next generation.”
Professor Kodiaga, meanwhile, is a Kenyan national who says on his LinkedIn that he is the director general of African affairs at Global Unification International based in Queensland, Australia.
He says he provides “leadership, co-coordinating research, training and consultancy on African governance, peace and security architecture” in the role.
A Google search for “Hebrew Investment Group” yielded no results.
Social activist Jealousy Mawarire claims the new POSB investors are “bogus” and says Mnangagwa’s role in the transaction smacks of corruption.
“One guy is a bogus investor in the United States (Prof Kue) who set up Twitter and Facebook accounts in 2020 which are inactive, and he gets a presidential directive written in his name and bank vaults are opened to criminals,” Mawarire said in an interview with HStv
“The president has a finance minister, but he instructs the establishment of parallel structures.
“If the president did not apply his mind before authorising this transaction, it speaks volumes of his cognitive state. It means he is no longer fit for office.”
Questions left for attorney general Mabiza had not been answered.
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