The story of the man who built Joina City: A Zimbabwean legend

Inquiries: thomas@africansignal.com The Man Behind Harare's Most Famous Landmark Ask anyone in Harare where to meet a friend, and they'll likely say Joina City. The 105-metre tower has become the city's unofficial compass—a landmark for lost tourists and teenage hustlers alike. But almost nobody knows who built it. This is the story of Shingayi Stanley Mutasa, the commodity trader from Mutare who quietly built one of Zimbabwe's most resilient business empires. From acquiring the debt-heavy TA Holdings in the 1990s to surviving the Gono banking crackdown and the hyperinflation years, Mutasa played the long game while contemporaries like Nicholas Vingirai, Nigel Chanakira, and others fell or fought for survival. In this episode of The African Signal, we trace how Mutasa: Took control of TA Holdings against a stacked boardroom and skeptical institutional shareholders. Used a Botswana insurance acquisition as a lifeline through Zimbabwe's darkest financial years. Spent twelve gruelling years completing Joina City—a project that ran out of money four times. Won the BP/Shell downstream fuel bid against deeper-pocketed competitors on reputation alone. Transformed from a pound-millionaire aspirant into a mentor arguing that Africa's problems belong to Africans to solve. This is not a story about the richest man in Zimbabwe. It is a story about survival, reputation, and the quiet builders who hold up the skyline without expecting their names to be remembered. #zimbabwe #africansignal #africa #africadocumentaries #mutasa