daniel chigunwe
Zvikomborero Parafini
EMBATTLED City of Harare Town Clerk, Hosiah Chisango, was yesterday granted bail at the High Court after spending over a month in remand prison.
Chisango was granted bail by Justice Kwenda who ordered him to pay US$500 and to reside at his given address until the corruption case is finalised.
He was also ordered to report once a month at Mabelreign Police Station, not to interfere with investigations and to surrender his passport to the Clerk of Court.
Allegations are that in January, the City of Harare embarked on a rehabilitation scheme of street lighting along roads in the capital.
On March 15, the City published an invitation to tender and eleven companies – Donax Enterprises (Pvt) Ltd, Ship Tracks (Pvt) Ltd, Furbank Trading (Pvt) Ltd, Radiation Incorporation (Pvt) Ltd, Slowgrad Engineering (Pvt) Ltd, Syvern Investments (Pvt) Ltd, Onel Electrical Engineers (Pvt) Ltd, Boltgas International (Pvt) Ltd, Stoyna Computers (Pvt) Ltd, Juluka End Joint Venture (Pvt) Ltd and Exodus & Company (Pvt) Ltd – responded.
It is alleged that on March 28, the Supply Chain Manager, Never Murerwa, who is an accomplice in the case appointed a Tender Opening Committee.
Juluka End Joint Venture, a company in which Moses Mpofu has a majority shareholding, was disqualified after failing to meet the tender requirements.
However, it was unprocedurally awarded the tender of the remaining lots, disregarding the dictates of the general procurement provisions, which requires the procurement to be done through a competitive bidding process.
Juluka Ennd Joint Venture’s owners also own Synlak (Pvt) Ltd, a company which had been previously awarded a tender for a biogas digester in 2019 and failed to deliver.
This alone should have disqualified Juluka given they were a bidder who had a bad record, when it comes to execution of City of Harare works.
Online Reporter