Sharon Mugabe

Personal Life

In 2008, there were reports that Bright Matonga had left his white British-born wife of 11 years, Anne Pout for Sharon Mugabe. Matonga denied answering questions about his relationship with Mugabe.^[1]

Marriage To Daniel Garwe

Mugabe started as Garwe's smallhouse. According to court papers filed by Pedzisai Mirrian Lilliethy, who was still Daniel Garwe's wife at the time, Garwe took property from their two farms in Mvuma and Harare and took them to his girlfriend Sharon Mugabe's farm in Bromley.

Lilliethy approached the High Court on 15 May 2018, and won an order on June 15 stopping the movement of property from the couple’s farms adding that most of the property was taken to Garwe’s girlfriend, identified in court papers as Sharon Mugabe.

The property included tractors and centre pivot irrigation equipment, accessed through the government’s Command Agriculture scheme, had been spotted at Mugabe’s Bromley farm.

Justice Edith Mushore ordered Garwe to stop taking away property registered under the family trust until the finalisation of the Garwe and Lilliethy’s divorce proceedings.^[3][4]

Education

She was ed­u­cated and worked in the US and trav­elled ex­ten­sively across North Amer­ica and Europe. She was part of a team that set up an in­vest­ment bank in Zim­babwe and the re­gion.^[2]

Businesses

Mugabe owns Imago Y&R, formerly Michel Hogg Young & Rubicam. The advertising firm was sold to Sharon Mugabe by Zimbabwe’s marketing guru Michael Hogg in 2005 after a failed bid by rival Gary Thompson’s agency, Gary Thompson & Associates.

It was alleged that Imago Y&R secured the lucrative Zanu-PF contract through Sharon Mugabe’s personal relationship with Brighton Matonga who was responsible for vetting companies that submitted tenders for Robert Mugabe's election campaign.^[1]

In August 2008, WPP sold its 25 percent stake in Imago Young & Rubicam, to majority shareholder Sharon Mugabe for $1. WPP decided to offload its shares in the company following accusations Imago helped Robert Mugabe with his re-election campaign. The group had been assured that she was not related to Robert Mugabe. Under the deal the agency would change its name to remove all references to Young & Rubicam and associated brands.^[5]

Career

Broadcasting

Mugabe was the spokesperson of KISS FM which was denied a broadcasting license by the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) on 24 November 2011. KISS FM came third after it scored 80 out of 106 points.^[6][7]

Kiss FM was denied one of the two broadcasting licences after having been found to have failed to show the ability to comply with technical standards. The BAZ also said the company did not show programming schedules and was found short on demonstrating that it could use other languages other than English.^[8]

In 2012, KISS FM challenged the BAZ's decision to turn down its application for a broadcasting licence and award commercial radio licences to Zimpapers and AB Communications at the Administrative Court. On 2 February 2012, The Herald reported that KISS FM had withdrawn its challenge against the BAZ's decision.^[9] Sharon Mugabe said the withdrawal was based on the drastic changes in the media landscape, particularly the migration of airwaves from analogue to the digital platform.^[6]

The KISS FM team comprised Mugabe, Douglas Munatsi, Musi Khumalo, Oliver Mtukudzi and Tony Ndoro. They were accused of plagiarising a document by the South African Broadcasting Authority (SABC) with The Herald quoting an anonymous BAZ official, who said the document had been copied and KISS FM forgot to remove the name SABC in that document. KISS FM denied the allegations.^[10]

In November 2020, the BAZ awarded Acacia Media Group trading as Kumba TV owned by Sharon Mugabe a free-to-air national television broadcasting licence.^[11]

Politics

Sharon Mugabe is a Zanu-PF member and a losing candidate in the 2008 Zanu-PF primary elections. Her advertisement agency did adverts for Zanu-PF in the 2008 elections targeting the 18-40 age groups. The Herald reported that the acquisition of her advertising agency was largely precipitated by the Zanu-PF lobbied indigenisation regulations that direct that the advertising industry must be a preserve for locals.^[7]

Controversies

National Building Society Loan

In February 2021, Nehanda Radio reported that Sharon Mugabe had demanded an urgent loan of Z$1,4 million from the National Building Society (NBS) when she was not a client of the bank. An employee of the bank, Ethel Rumbidzai Chitanda who was Chief Finance Officer was fired after she allegedly tried to stop Mugabe from getting the loan.

Chitanda had denied Sharon Mugabe the loan citing that she was a new client who had just submitted her account opening forms and had no traceable history, also her credit rating outside the bank was poor and the bank had no provision for such a loan at that time.

Mugabe's actions were revealed when junior employees sent an anonymous statement to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) Chairperson Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo. The junior employees said Sharon Mugabe's husband Daniel Garwe was trying to force his way to have the bank fund an illegal housing development scheme in Melfort, Goromonzi.

The NBS employees said that Mugabe had to get a loan that had to be converted into foreign currency so she could take her father for hospitalisation out of Zimbabwe.

Both Mugabe and Garwe did not comment on the issue.^[12]

Petronella Kagonye's Arrest

Rogers Pote and Ngonidzashe Zvanezuro who were complainants in a case where former Public Service minister Petronella Kagonye was being accused of converting US$18 000 meant for residential stands for her own use withdrew the case saying they were forced to lie about her by Sharon Mugabe and her husband.

The duo confessed that they had lied when they appeared before Harare magistrate Vongai Muchuchuti-Guwuriro on 1 February 2022. They said that Mugabe and her husband Daniel Garwe had forced them to report lies in a bid to discredit Kagonye during the Zanu PF primary elections for Goromonzi West constituency.

Zvanezuro told the court:

"I was arrested sometime in October 2020 at Goromionzi Police Station on allegations of assault. I slept in the cells for two days. Rodgers Pote, the chairperson of Vaduku Housing Co-operative, came and secured my release. Upon being released, Pote took me to a meeting at Jamaica Inn in Melfort. At the meeting, people present included Sharon Mugabe, Pote, Peter Mubare, Farai Ngondo, Ben Chivandire, Terence Tayengwa and Arthur Chidenhe. At the meeting, I was ordered by Pote to file a criminal complaint against Kagonye on behalf of Vaduku Housing Co-operative at Ruwa Police Station."

He said the RRB number for the report made was 1525227.

Allegations were that Vaduku Housing Co-operative Society gave US$18 500 to Kagonye for allocation of stands, which she failed to provide. Zvanezuro said that no payment was ever made to Kagonye and no fraud was committed by her.^[13]

Tetrad Investment Bank Loan

Sharon Mugabe owed an undisclosed amount to Tetrad Investment Bank. The Independent reported that the Sheriff of the High Court attached moveable property in lieu of the debt.

Tetrad Bank went under judicial management before it was liquidated after a number of senior politicians and businesspeople failed to pay back millions of dollars they were loaned by the bank.^[14]

Philanthropy

In 2018, Sharon Mu­gabe, through her trust, Izwi, was the guarantor of loans given to 300 women who wanted to start their own busi­nesses. On 4 March 2018, Mu­gabe also fa­cil­i­tated a meet­ing with the fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tion, MCP Mi­cro­fi­nance at a farm along Garnier Road.^[2]

References