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Fungai Lupande Harare Bureau
FORMER Energy and Power Development Minister Elton Mangoma yesterday appeared in court for appointing OK Zimbabwe as a third party pre-paid electricity vendor without going to tender during his time in the inclusive Government. It is alleged that Mangoma ,54, instructed a Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company official to cancel a tender floated for pre-paid electricity vending and instead hand-picked OK Zimbabwe to do the job.
Harare magistrate, Vakayi Chikwekwe granted Mangoma a $1,000 bail and ordered him to surrender his passport, report once every week at CID Serious Frauds and to reside at his given address. Mangoma, of number 25 Pendennis Road, Mt Pleasant in Harare, is facing charges of criminal abuse of duty as a public officer.
He is being represented by Beatrice Mtetwa.
Through Mtetwa, Mangoma raised a complaint against the police for not furnishing him with finer details of the allegations.
“I’ve complaints relating to section 71(a) of the Constitution which requires an accused to be given full details of the allegations against him to enable him to answer to the charges,” said Mtetwa.
“We asked for the relevant details and minutes and these were denied to him.”
Mtetwa raised complaints against a profiling form used by the police which she said violated Mangoma’s right to privacy.
“We were not aware that every accused person is profiled using a form which asks them for information not relevant to the offence,” she said.
“The form asks about relationship status, whether you have a girlfriend or mistress, full details of your spouse and bank details.
“I will be filing a detailed application challenging the constitutional validity of the form. It infringes on section 51 of the Constitution and violates the right to privacy.”
The complainant in the matter is the State Procurement Board (SPB) represented by its principal office, Cledwyn Nyanhete.
Online Reporter