We were quite surprised to learn this week that Denny Marandure has joined IMC, the company that Zimbabwe’s president announced as the exclusive Starlink distribution partner in the country.
The marketing oriented executive was quite visible as the ZOL CEO several years go, before the company, his role, and culture, were swallowed whole into the Liquid corporate machine. So it’s great to see his name making the telecoms headlines again.
It’s surprising because, since its announcement, IMC has felt like a briefcase business that’s just getting favours from politicians. Based on that alone you would not expect the CEO of Liquid Tanzania (Liquid still has him listed as CEO on its platforms) to leave that job and its status in telecoms, for Chivhayo. All things being equal of course.
We confirmed that IMC is indeed Chivhayo’s company, and Chivhayo is nothing if not controversial. The man is fighting fresh controversy around a leaked audio as we write this. A controversy that may even threaten his Starlink exclusivity.
It’s also surprising to us here because the relationship of IMC and Starlink is still unclear. Is IMC the official representative of Starlink in Zimbabwe? Are they an officially recognised reseller? Starlink lists its authorised resellers on its website here. IMC is not listed. Surely a month is long enough for Starlink to update its website, for POTRAZ to tell us exactly what’s going on and for IMC itself to become something visible beyond announcing an executive.
Someone with some familiarity with Starlink and how it works has told us there’s likely no agreement between Starlink and IMC at all. That really, what happened here is that the president simply made IMC the exclusive importer of Starlink terminals into Zimbabwe. And that this is something likely to be enforced via laws restricting other Zimbabweans from importing terminals. Essentially, forcing anyone who wants Starlink to buy from IMC.
So it’s surprising that Marandure, with his familiarity with telecoms, would still leave Liquid for Starlink. But maybe it is his familiarity with telecoms and Liquid itself that caused it. Maybe IMC has guarantees in the internet services space we don’t know about. And maybe he doesn’t mind the controversy that comes with the company he’ll keep. Or he just wanted to come back home.
Whatever the reason, and however this Starlink reselling will work, Zimbabweans just want cheaper, and more accessible internet. Essentially, a long overdue shakeup of the space. And maybe Marandure will achieve that, and the means will not matter.
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8 comments
Something is not right here I don’t know what really but I smell a rat here
there is no reason to be “quite surprised” .. the reason is simply money, some people have no values/principles and will sell their soul to the highest bidder for a few dollars more…
The most likely thing is that a number organizations will likely begin to exclusively use Starlink as the network source and this means that this company will be awarded all the contracts to supply this equipment and take payments for subscriptions. I believe this can also lead to very lucrative government contracts. This might be the reason he chose IMC over Liquid. Who knows how laws might be adapted to cater for this guy.
That all StarLink kits or just those for the business and other organizations will be purchased via IMC is what I also think. Knowing our rulers all government departments in areas with no fibre including rural authorities might be forced to buys StarLink kits from IMC. We have clinics in rural areas, towns and townships without fibre. All schools which were given computers will also be forced to buy the kits.
There really is a lucrative business there.
That all StarLink kits or just those for the business and other organizations will be purchased via IMC is what I also think. Knowing our rulers all government departments in areas with no fibre including rural authorities might be forced to buys StarLink kits from IMC. We have clinics in rural areas, towns and townships without fibre. All schools which were given computers will also be forced to buy the kits.
There really is a lucrative business there.
Denny is a cool guy .
Sounds like there could be a possible registration of Starlink kits purchased through IMC which may be running through local fiber uplink backhauls to maintain control of Internet access in the country. As already published in some articles, it won’t be a starlink Direct Internet Access to users but via lMC in partnership with local fiber service providers.
Great insights and very well-written. This post was very useful. Solar