The matter of ZESA bosses who are jointly charged with the president of the Coalition of Democrats has been rolled over to Monday as the chief witness seems to have fallen sick amid testifying in court.
Regional magistrate Francis Mapfumo postponed the matter to May 6 for a possible continuation of the trial.
The president of the Coalition of Democrats, Elton Mangoma together with the suspended ZESA CEO Joshua Chifamba and ZESA enterprises managing director Tereerai Mutasa will therefore appear in court on the given date for trial continuation.
The trio was ordered test the authenticity of some of the documents which are part of the record in their previous appearance.
The trio has long pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The three are facing charges of criminal abuse of office as public officers and the trial commenced with the investigating officer detective Assistant Inspector Energy Mudandishe testifying.
The trio allegedly connived and tendered an unprocedural tender to a South Korean company in 2010.
It is the State’s case that in 2010 Choi Young Jin of Techpro company ltd of South Korea met Mangoma at his offices in Harare and they agreed to enter into a technology transfer partnership between ZESA Ent and Techpro company of South Korea.
Mangoma instructed Mutasa to liaise with Techpro with the view to establish a partnership.
Mutasa then wrote to the State Procurement Board (SPB) seeking advise on procedures to be followed in such partnerships and he was advised to proceed with Section 49 of the Repealed Procurement Regulation Act Chapter 22.14 and to seek assistance from State Enterprises Restructuring Agents (SERA) on how to proceed.
SERA advised Mutasa to prepare a memorandum which Mangoma would submit to the inter-ministerial committee, (IMCCPP) on commercialization and privatization of parastatals recommending Techpro through a competitive bidding process.
On receiving the business proposal memorandum and bid documents for tender, Chifamba and Mangoma connived to bypass the approval by IMCCPP and the competitive bidding process showing favor to Techpro.
The state said that the act was unprocedural and caused ZESA enterprises to suffer prejudice of $850 000.