BY TAURAI MANGUDHLA A VICIOUS intra-managerial battle for the control of State-owned cotton buyer and predecessor Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (Cottco) has lifted the lid on acts of misconduct including abuse of office and corruption.
This comes amid another brawl over a sour US$4 million National Building Society (NBS) housing tender which Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga’s office is said to have taken interest in.
The cases are said to be connected to the suspension of National Social Security Authority (Nssa) general manager Arthur Manase on unspecified corruption charges.
The Procurement Regulatory Authority (Praz) led by chief executive officer Clever Ruswa has also been sucked into the NBS matter.
NewsDay Weekender has it on good authority that the incarceration of two top Cottco executives, managing director Pious Manamike and head of ginning, marketing and business development Maxmore Njanji earlier this month as well as the suspension of Manase were closely linked.
While Manamike and Njanji have already been charged with corruption, Manase was suspended by the authority pending investigations.
A dossier seen by NewsDay Weekender shows that the NBS storm started when the bank frustrated former managing director John Mapiye into resignation.
Mapiye is current treasurer at Cottco where top management strongly believes there is a ploy by unknown insiders to oust them. He joined Cottco late 2021.
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Mapiye, who had come out tops in a series of interviews to take the number one post at NBS was not appointed managing director because he allegedly refused to bend the rules and award a US$4 million housing tender for the company’s Dzivarasekwa project awarded to one Nengo Builders.
Nengo came third out of a number of bidders in the initial tender. A hurried board meeting was reportedly held to arm-twist Mapiye into re-tendering the housing project.
“In this meeting I was instructed to cancel the tender and recommend to Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Praz) that the tender be awarded to the top three bidders being Reegul (the original recommended bidder), Nengo Builders and Blainesworld (the cheapest bidder after the re-evaluation),” reads part of the documents in our possession.
The tender was in respect of completion of 500 high-density houses which the company was constructing.
After paying US$16 million to the first contractor plus some 100 complete housing units, the project was left incomplete forcing NBS to go back to the market and throw in another US$4 million for the project.
The Praz boss stands accused of interfering with the US$4 million housing tender.
Former NBS chairperson Stan Kudenga, who was allegedly on Mapiye’s side for refusing to bend corporate governance rules, became unpopular with fellow board members and Nssa.
He eventually left the board.
Contacted for comment, Kudenga said: “I left the board because Nssa had increased its stake in Zimre and, therefore, I did not qualify as an independent chairperson.”
However, Mapiye had already alerted the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the Willard Manungo-headed Corporate Governance Unit about the goings on around the housing tender.
Mapiye was, however, later charged with fraud and interfering with the Dzivarasekwa tender before he was suspended without pay for eight months. After unsuccessful attempts challenging his suspension, he resigned.
The matter has drawn in Chiwenga, who has allegedly ordered a thorough probe.
Manungo requested questions in writing when contacted for comment last week. He had not responded at the time of going to print.
Nssa had also not responded to questions sent more than two weeks ago.
Praz said there was no interference because the matter was dealt with in accordance with the provisions of the public procurement guidelines.
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