MDC Minister faces more charges

Minister of ENERGY and Power Development, Elton Mangoma's trial on allegations of authorising the purchase of five million litres of diesel from a South African company without going to tender opened yesterday at the High Court. The minister denies the charges.

Mangoma was last week arrested on fresh charges of criminal abuse of office for allegedly flouting State tender procedures.

According to the new indictment, Mangoma cancelled a tender for the supply and delivery to the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company of a pre-payment revenue management system, meters and associated equipment.

The State alleges that his actions prejudiced nine companies that had participated in the tender process. His trial on the fresh charge was postponed to July 18. Justice Yunus Omerjee postponed the bail hearing after it emerged that the prosecution had not been served with a copy of the bail application.

When he appeared before Justice Chinembiri Bhunu, Mangoma was formally charged with criminal abuse of office and another alternative charge under the Procurement Act.

In a defence outline read by Harare lawyer Ms Beatrice Mtetwa of Mtetwa and Nyambirai, Mangoma claimed that his prosecution was a political attempt to persecute him and his party (MDC-T).

Mangoma said the procurement of fuel was not part of his duties and that if any offence was committed, then the officials responsible for that duty should be answerable.

"He (Mangoma) is surprised that their conduct has not been questioned as clearly that agreement cannot be pinned on him as the letter relied on by the State has nothing to do with Molwhelere," read part of the defence outline.

Mangoma denies directing any official to dispense with normal procurement procedures.

He added the officials should have acted in accordance with the law.

"He will testify that at no time did he direct any of the officials to dispense with normal procurement procedures and that once he had signed the letter, the officials remained obliged to follow all procurement procedures, including any waivers including given the urgency of the situation".

He challenged the State to prove that PetroTrade was a procuring entity as envisaged in the legislation.

Chief law officer Mr Chris Mutangadura called Energy and Power Development permanent secretary Mr Justin Mupamhanga to testify as the State's first witness.

Mr Mupamhanga told the court that on January 10 this year, Mangoma informed him that he had identified NOOA as a fuel supplier to ease the fuel shortages.

The court heard that Mr Mupamhanga queried the suitability of the company since it was not on the list of approved suppliers.

The court also heard that Engineer Griefshaw Ravenevako the PetroTrade acting chief executive added that dealing with NOOA was not viable since their prices were too high.

Eng Ravenevako, the court heard, also felt the logistics of bringing the fuel to Zimbabwe would take long and was not ideal for the situation that required urgency.

Mr Mupamhanga said, "The issues raised by Eng Ravenevako were sent to the minister but he insisted that NOOA would meet the timelines".

He said the ministry was supposed to have forwarded the name of the company to the procurement board for profiling and approval as a supplier before following the proper tender procedure.