MDC Renewal Team treasurer-general Elton Mangoma yesterday appeared at the Harare Magistrates’ Court facing allegations of criminal abuse of office allegedly committed during his tenure as Energy and Power Development minister.

BY NQOBILE NKIWANE

Mangoma was not asked to plead when he appeared before Harare provincial magistrate Vakai Chikwekwe, who remanded him out of custody to June 15 on $1 000 bail.

As part of his bail conditions, he was also ordered to surrender his passport and to report at Harare Central Police Station once every Friday.

Through his lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa, Mangoma immediately gave notice of his intention to challenge the constitutional validity of a profiling form which he was made to fill in by the police.

Mtetwa also lodged a complaint against the police saying the demands of the form were an infringement to the rights and privacy of an accused person. “Every accused person is now profiled through a profiling form which asks questions that are not related to the offence.

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“Some of the questions include full banking details and whether one has a girlfriend or boyfriend,” Mtetwa said.

Allegations against the former Energy minister are that sometime in August 2012, the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Centre (ZETDC) floated a tender for the appointment of a third party pre-paid electricity vendor with a closing date of October of the same year.

However, in September 2012, and before the closure of the tender, Mangoma is alleged to have directed ZETDC accounting officer Julian Chinembiri to cancel the tender for the procurement of third party electricity vending.

The State alleges, instead, Mangoma instructed Chinembiri to hand-pick OK Zimbabwe without going to tender and his move led to the cancellation of the tender by the State Procurement Board on September 27, 2012.

OK Zimbabwe was then appointed the third party pre-paid electricity vendor on December 20, 2012, as per Mangoma’s alleged instruction.