ZANU PF secretary for finance Obert Mpofu has reportedly made sweeping changes to the ruling party’s treasury department and demanded a forensic audit, NewsDay has learnt.
BY RICHARD CHIDZA
It is also understood that Mpofu, a former Mines minister and now relegated to the obscure Macro-Economic portfolio, has gone as far as opening new accounts for the party finances.
“He has been ruthless in demanding a forensic audit because he thinks his predecessors abused party funds between them, especially Didymus Mutasa (former secretary for administration) and the late David Karimanzira (former finance secretary). Mpofu has also opened completely new party accounts, refusing to use the same accounts that were being used by those who came before him,” a Zanu PF insider told NewsDay this week.
Mpofu was elevated to the fifth most powerful portfolio in Zanu PF’s administrative arm, the politburo, following the most divisive and acrimonious December 2014 congress. The elective indaba was preceded by chaotic scenes and expulsions of senior members of the ruling party among them former Vice-President Joice Mujuru, Mutasa and ex-spokesperson Rugare Gumbo on allegations of hatching a plot to oust veteran leader President Robert Mugabe.
Mutasa had been doubling as both secretary for administration and finance following Karimanzira’s death in 2011 until his axing from Zanu PF. The former Presidential Affairs minister was slated by Mugabe for failing to mobilise resources for the chaotic youth and women’s league congresses in mid-2014 in which the Zanu PF leader was forced to donate foodstuffs to feed hungry and angry delegates.
Yesterday, Mpofu confirmed he had indeed ordered an audit of the party’s books to be carried out.
“It is part of corporate governance and happens in every corporate body. There is nothing sinister about it. The audit will allow us to understand what has been going on and check weak areas that require strengthening,” Mpofu said.
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Asked if the audit demand had been triggered by the discovery of something untoward in the use of Zanu PF funds, Mpofu said: “Not necessarily.”
“However, if we find that there are things that were not done properly, that will be seriously looked into,” he said without elaborating.
Insiders also disclosed that Mpofu has since been put in charge of Zanu PF’s many floundering companies previously headed by Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Mnangagwa served as the party’s secretary for legal affairs and reportedly presided over “most of the rot in these companies”.
“Like all companies in Zimbabwe, Zanu PF firms are under strain because of the economic problems the country has been facing. But as chair, Mnangagwa did not have much to say. The companies were run by Karimanzira and management teams seconded through a patronage system, some with scant knowledge of running corporates,” the source added.
Mpofu, the source added, would be descending on these companies “with a toothpick” in a move that has scared many within the Zanu PF hierarchy.
Zanu PF owns or has interests in many companies including M&S Syndicate and Jongwe Printers, among others.
Mpofu presided over the fundraising committee that sourced funds for last year’s Zanu PF annual conference in Victoria Falls and reportedly raised over $3 million, surpassing the $1 million target that had been set.
The party, then struggling to pay its workers settled its salary arrears with its workers mainly at headquarters in Harare before “paying a bonus”.
