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Business Reporter
GOVERNMENT is unable to appoint a substantive board chairperson for the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) until conclusion of a pending court case involving suspended board chairman, Callisto Jokonya.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Mr George Guvamatanga, revealed this yesterday in response to stakeholder queries during the Zimra Annual General Meeting, which was hosted virtually in line with Covid-19 mitigation protocols.

Jokonya was hauled before the courts in September 2019 on allegations of renewing a Zimra employee’s contract without following due process.

He was facing two counts of abuse of duty as a public officer when he appeared before Harare magistrate, Mrs Rumbidzai Mugwagwa, and was granted $5 000 bail.

Since then, Mrs Josephine Matambo has been acting board chair and stakehodlers have been asking why Government was taking long to replace Mr Jokonya.

“This issue is currently under review. It has not been reviewed because of issues of a legal nature that are before the courts. This is what has held us,” said Mr Guvamatanga in response.

“We could not move ahead, and the legal advice we got was that we allow the court process to be concluded before appointment of a substantive board chair.”

According to court papers, during the period from May 24 to June 27, 2019 at the Zimra offices in Harare, Mr Jokonya allegedly abused his duty by showing favour to Mr Happier Kuzvinzwa when he caused the renewal for his contract of employment as commissioner of customs and excise, which was expiring on May 31.

It is the State’s case that pursuant to his ‘corrupt act’ and taking advantage of his position as board chairman of Zimra, Mr Jokonya wrote to Finance and Economic Development Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube, who is the appointing authority, claiming that he had made due consultations with all Zimra board members and that the same had agreed that Kuzvinzwa’s contract be renewed for another four-year term.

It is the State’s case that on May 28 and acting on the misrepresentation, Minister Ncube approved the contract renewal.

Armed with the approval from the minister, Mr Jokonya reportedly instructed the then Commissioner General, Ms Faith Mazani, to prepare a contract of employment for Kuzvinzwa.

Ms Mazani allegedly refused to comply since there was no board resolution to that effect.

The court heard that having failed to convince Ms Mazani, Jokonya got a contract of employment, which he reportedly countersigned and was witnessed by external lawyers.

Last year in August, our Harare Bureau reported that the State was contemplating withdrawal of charges against Jokonya following a consensus between the two parties.