HARARE – Businessman Kudakwashe Tagwirei fired up a storm on Wednesday after claiming Zimbabweans who have not won government tenders are “foolish” – about 99 percent of the population.

Speaking at the National University of Science and Technology in Bulawayo, Tagwirei launched a personal defence against accusations of being a tenderpreneur, a derogatory term used to describe individuals — often politically connected — who exploit their influence to bypass competition and secure public tenders for personal enrichment, typically through corrupt practices like overpricing, substandard work, or kickbacks.

“If you’re not a tenderpreneuer, you’re foolish,” Tagwirei said. “The biggest buyer or seller in this country is government, so if you don’t want to get your tender from the biggest buyer and biggest seller where are you going to get your business from?

“Anyone who tells you that you must not get tenders is foolish, you must actually strive to get a tender from government.”

The Sakunda Holdings founder, who has scored government contracts worth billions of dollars, claimed his critics were “jealous because they don’t get the tenders.”

He claimed the word tenderpreneuer was “coined by white people to discourage blacks from gaining access to business from government.”

Recently appointed to Zanu PF’s central committee amid claims he harbours ambitions to be president, Tagwirei has used his proximity to the country’s political leadership to secure huge government contracts.

A reported US$3 billion payment to Tagwirei’s Sakunda Holdings for the Command Agriculture scheme caused a collapse of the local currency, leading to the United States and Britain imposing sanctions against him and his companies.

The United States treasury department said Tagwirei “has utilised his relationships with high level Zimbabwean officials to gain state contracts and receive favoured access to hard currency, including U.S. dollars. In turn, Tagwirei has provided high priced items, such as expensive cars, to senior-level Zimbabwean government officials.”

It added: “Since former Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s 2017 departure, Tagwirei used a combination of opaque business dealings and his ongoing relationship with President (Emmerson) Mnangagwa to grow his business empire dramatically and rake in millions of U.S. dollars.”

Economist Tinashe Murapata, reacting to Tagwirei’s comments in Bulawayo, said: “Tagwirei’s comments on tenderprenuership miss the nuance and intelligence of a national leader he is shaping himself to be. Command Agriculture never went to tender. The treasury bills he was given were never meant to be traded, in effect it was pension funds and depositors’ money that funded Command Agriculture, savings from the same people he now calls foolish. Savings which were lost to hyperinflation caused by the government.

“I don’t understand political leadership that mocks distance from political office. By its very nature and definition, proximity and access to political office is limited to a few. Yet it is ordinary business people and traders without political access who drive the economy.”

Businessman Kuda Musasiwa weighed in: “Tenders are not the problem. An equitable system that allows all business to access tenders would be the answer to this. Currently tenders go to shelved companies with hotel rooms as addresses.”

Tagwirei has won state contracts in a wide range of sectors including agriculture, energy, health and road construction.