Former Minister of Economic Planning and Investment Promotion, who was the presidential candidate for the Coalition of Democrats in the 2018 elections, Elton Mangoma, together with suspended ZESA CEO Josh Chifamba and ZESA enterprises managing director Tereerai Mutasa have been advised to appear again in court tomorrow after the State failed to show up.
The three are are facing charges of criminal abuse of office as public officers.
Zivanai Macharaga was not in attendance today and Harare Magistrate Hosea Mujaya postponed the matter to tomorrow.
They are facing allegations of having 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seeking advise on procedures to be followed in such partnerships and he was advised to proceed with Section 49 of the Repealed Procurement Regulation Act Chapter 22.14 and to seek assistance from State Enterprises Restructuring Agents (SERA) on how to proceed.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.