African carmaker Mureza denies Twitter claims it has started selling vehicles – NewZimbabwe.com

By Phuti Mpyane, Bussiness Day

JOHANNESBURG – Mureza is a black-owned African car manufacturer. Owned and cofounded by Tatenda Mungofa, Pheladi Chiloane and Thulisa Sosibo, we first reported on the brand in September 2019 as it was about to unveil its first model — a hatchback called the Prim8 (pronounced Primate) — a name the company might want to rethink.

The company was recently trending on social media, with news that alleged the start of sales of its products. On May 10, @KaliSpirit lamented the lack of media exposure of the company, adding a wish for “government officials to drive these cars”.

Mungofa, whose Twitter account has a picture of an interesting-looking half-tonne bakkie prototype and a Bio that reads “Cars and business. Innovation and creativity will bring the future we desire”, regularly tweets about the brand’s activities.

In October 2022 Mungofa tweeted a picture of cars, presumed to be unfinished Prim8 hatchbacks at a storage warehouse.

The company originally stated a target price of between R180,000 and R200,000 with a three-year warranty for the hatch.

The start-up also made it known it would bolster the range with sedan and mini-SUV spin-offs, including half-tonne and one-tonne bakkies and panel vans under the Tusker name.

The brand that initially planned to assemble cars from semi-knock-down kits in Rosslyn, outside Pretoria, and later in Zimbabwe, has yet to launch any model.

Co-founder Sosibo, who Motor News spoke to, could not confirm or commit to a date of launch.

In reaction to the recent social media spotlight, the company has issued a statement.

We are aware of some social media posts circulating on Twitter and Facebook regarding vehicles being released into the market.

While we appreciate the overwhelming response and communication surrounding these posts, the information was not sourced directly from our organisation. We wish to place the following matters on record:

1. Mureza is a licensed car manufacturing company (licence number F200095850017) which can be verified with the relevant authorities in South Africa.
2. Mureza is an African company, headquartered in South Africa. Our vision is to be Africa’s flagship automotive brand. The founder and visionary is Tatenda Mungofa, supported by the co-founders Pheladi Chiloane and Thulisa Sosibo.
3. Mureza has not officially launched any vehicle products into the market yet. We have a stockpile of 6,000 vehicles in partnership with SAIPA Motor Corporation and are preparing for the African market.

The models and specifications will be defined in due course and information on where and how to purchase these vehicles will be announced via our formal channels. For those interested in finding out more about our product specifications and prices we encourage you to register to be part of our focus group to receive direct updates.

4. Mureza has operations in Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, all aimed at setting up manufacturing facilities. Details of each operation will be announced at the appropriate time. In the interim, all our manufacturing is hosted by our technical partners.

Anyone interested in doing business with us can email us to secure an appointment (with specified heading and some details of your request).

Any further comments or inquiries regarding our organisation, we encourage you to contact group corporate affairs executive Thulisa Sosibo on [email protected].

We also encourage media outlets and social media platforms that wish to share updates on our behalf to be part of our focus group and contact us.