The Speaker of the House of Assembly, Lovemore Moyo, will on Thursday make a ruling on an alleged act of breach of parliamentary procedure by the chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Budget, Finance and Investment Promotion, Paddy Zhanda, accused by Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Gideon Gono of trying to extort from him.Committee member Willias Madzimure, who presented the case before the House on Tuesday, said Gono had written to Zhanda and copied the letter to Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma, alleging the chairman had attempted — through emissaries — to extort FROM him in connection with investigations by the committee into the operations of the central bank.
“A letter dated October 10, 2011, addressed to Zhanda and Zvoma contained information charging that Zhanda attempted to pressure the governor in pursuit of his personal interests,” Madzimure said.
“The letter written by Gono read: ‘Yourself and myself know a little bit about what is behind this unseemingly and embarrassing disguise as an innocent Parliamentary enquiry and the sooner we stop going round in circles the better. You know I do have evidence of your approaches to me by your emissaries to do certain things in your favour or else harassment will not end’.”
Madzimure asked the Speaker to study the allegations and make a ruling on whether there was a prima facie case of contempt of Parliament against Zhanda.
However, in an interview later with NewsDay, Madzimure said the committee members were unhappy with the allegations as they would derail progress on investigations into the operations of the RBZ.
“We feel the Speaker should deal with this issue soon as it might be an attempt to paralyse the work of the committee’s investigations on the RBZ. We are not saying our chairman is not guilty, but an attack on our chairman can be considered as an attack on the committee. We are not dealing with Gono as a person, but as the RBZ Governor, which is an important institution for the whole country,” said Madzimure.
If grounds are found for a case against Zhanda, a Parliamentary Privileges Committee will be set up to investigate the allegations of corruption.
