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Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
SUSPECTED conmen are reportedly on the loose in Hwange district where they are reportedly defrauding villagers claiming to be recruiting prospective job seekers on behalf of Zambezi River Authority (ZRA).

The Chronicle understands that some prospective job seekers have paid between US$1 and US$3 to the conmen who include a man claiming to be a Zanu-PF councillor.

ZRA is a bi-lateral company jointly owned by Zambia and Zimbabwe and is spearheading construction of the Batoka Gorge Hydro-Electric Power (BGHES) whose construction is set to begin in 2022.

ZRA engaged Power China and General Electric in July 2019 for the construction project expected to generate a combined 2 400MW at a cost of about US$5 billion.

The project will have two power stations on either side of the Zambezi River at Batoka Gorge and the contractor is on-site doing project design confirmation before a final report.

ZRA is at the stage of disclosure of the Environmental Impact Assessment (ESIA) where it is engaging various stakeholders including communities in Chiefs Shana, Mvuthu and Whange on the Zimbabwean side as well as Chief Mukuni on the Zambian side.

About 4 000 jobs will be created to be shared by Zimbabweans and Zambians.

ZRA and one of the financiers of the project, Africa Development Bank (AfDB) agreed that most of those who will work on the project are locals.

The conmen are therefore taking advantage of the pending recruitment to defraud job seekers but ZRA said it has not yet started recruiting.

“As ZRA, we have learnt with dismay that there are messages circulating from people reportedly illegally registering workers for the BGHES.

As ZRA we are not going to do any job recruitment without consulting Chiefs so we want to inform villagers that anyone who comes and claims to be registering people for jobs is an opportunist and vulture so people must be careful. We know locals will not be hoodwinked because they are aware of what is happening on the ground,” said ZRA chief executive Engineer Munyaradzi Munodawafa during a virtual meeting.

He said ZRA had engaged traditional leaders and village heads who will compile lists of prospective job seekers in consultation with local chiefs.

“The 4 000 jobs will be for local communities in Zambia and Zimbabwe but for now ZRA has not engaged anyone to recruit people or compile a list. Village heads and their chiefs will be responsible for recruitment,” explained Engineer Munodawafa.

He said some investigations had revealed that one of the suspected conmen had approached the developer on site and claimed to be a Zanu-PF councillor and the one responsible for recruiting workers. — @ncubeleon