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Consultancy firm boss exposes Zhuwao

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Indigenisation minister Patrick Zhuwao allegedly engaged Triple Bottom Line (3BL) consultancy, despite the company not being registered with the State Procurement Board and not up to date with its tax obligations, Parliament heard yesterday.

Indigenisation minister Patrick Zhuwao allegedly engaged Triple Bottom Line (3BL) consultancy, despite the company not being registered with the State Procurement Board and not up to date with its tax obligations, Parliament heard yesterday.

BY XOLISANI NCUBE

Old Mugabe

3BL director, Thandi Ngwenya told members of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Youth and Indigenisation that the firm was engaged to provide consultancy services on data collection mechanism for economic empowerment on behalf of the ministry.

“After President (Robert) Mugabe appointed honourable Patrick Zhuwao as minister, 3BL approached the ministry with a proposal to host and jointly manage events and projects on its behalf on a profit-sharing arrangement,” she said.

Ngwenya was first implicated by Zanu PF activist, Acie Lumumba for allegedly working in cahoots with Zhuwao to milk public funds through consultancy and facilitation fees.

She told the Justice Mayor Wadyajena-chaired committee that although 3BL was irregularly engaged by the ministry, it did not receive a single cent of public funds.

“As 3BL, we never received any payment from the ministry. Our original draft MoU (memorandum of understanding) proposed a model, where 3BL would assist the ministry gather information to feed into its strategy and then allow 3BL to raise funds from private players to fund the projects,” Ngwenya said.

Asked by Goromonzi South MP Petronella Kagonye (Zanu PF), under whose authority they were doing the consultancy work, Ngwenya said they were given the green light to do the job by Zhuwao, but failed to produce letters to back her claims.

In her presentation, Ngwenya said the MoU, which she had prepared to be the basis for her engagement with the ministry, was rejected by the Attorney-General, as such a mandate required a public tender.

Ngwenya also denied allegations that she used Zhuwao’s name to make money.