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Patrick Mavhura

Tendai Rupapa, Harare Bureau
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation chief executive Patrick Mavhura and acting head of finance and administration Benania Shumba are back in court facing charges of theft and contravening the Procurement Act.

They are facing an additional charge of corruptly using a false document to misrepresent facts.

Mavhura (38) and Shumba (48) are said to have bought 35 vehicles from Croco Motors without following due process.It is alleged the pair tried to conceal their shenanigans by manufacturing fake documents when they got wind of the investigations which were being carried out by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC).

Mavhura and Shumba appeared before magistrate Ms Tilda Mazhande on Monday, who released them on $300 bail each coupled with some conditions, among them surrendering their passports and not to interfere with witnesses.

Sometime in February this year, Mavhura and Shumba, who were facing criminal abuse of office charges emanating from the same facts, successfully applied for exception to the charge.

In their application for exception, the pair submitted that the charge did not disclose the offence.

Mr Elijah Makomo concluded that Mavhura and Shumba were not public officers, before quashing their charge and clearing them.

On the recent charges, prosecutor Mr Sebastian Mutizirwa alleged that on November 3, 2015, Mavhura wrote a letter to permanent secretary of the Ministry of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services, requesting authority to buy 45 vehicles from Croco Motors.

He attached a proforma invoice from Croco Motors specifying the vehicles to be purchased.

The invoice included 20 Toyota Hilux single cabs valued at $641 000, 10 Toyota Coasters (30 seater) valued at $879 000 and 15 Nissan Datsun Go valued at $199 500 and the total amount of the vehicles was $1 719 900.

On November 25, Mavhura and Shumba allegedly held an informal meeting with CMED inquiring whether they had existing running tenders with Croco Motors.

Minutes of the meeting were not recorded, the court heard. It is alleged that on January 19 last year, the pair convened a meeting with Croco Motors and decided to procure a completely different set of motor vehicles from those they were pursuing on their application for Cabinet authority. The new set of vehicles included 20 Ford Ranger Single cabs, 10 Nissan NP 200 and five Ford Ecosport valued at $980 000.

On 5 February, Mavhura and Shumba received the Cabinet Authority specifying that they were authorised to purchase 45 vehicles as outlined in their application through the tender.

On the same day, despite ZBC being a procuring entity in terms of the Procurement Act, the duo in violation of the laid down procurement procedures, approached Croco Motors and made a direct purchase of vehicles on their new list. They allegedly originated a Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) transfer of $649 000 into Croco Motors bank account as payment. It is the State’s case that on April 28, ZACC received a report that the duo had violated the procurement procedures, thereby showing favour to Croco Motors.