HARARE – Parliament has opened an investigation into how Sakunda Holdings, a company owned by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s friend Kudakwashe Tagwirei, was awarded a multi-million-dollar tender to construct a 200MW diesel power plant in Dema even without placing a bid.
The legislature’s public accounts committee took Zesa executive chairman Sidney Gata to task over the shady deal on Monday when he appeared before legislators for questioning and gave him until Friday to avail all the pertinent details.
The contract was initially won by APR Energy Holdings, a United States-based firm in 2015, but was later inexplicably rescinded and handed over to Sakunda, who in turn subcontracted a losing bidder, Aggreko, as a partner.
Committee chairman Tendai Biti, a legislator for Harare East, said they were also digging into irregularities over the 100MW Gwanda solar power plant tender given to Wicknell Chivayo’s Intratrek and other crooked deals involving Zesa following a 2019 audit that alleged endemic corruption at the power utility.
“Today as Public Accounts Committee we began our work on Zesa. We will be examining issues to do with the Gwanda Intratek solar project, the Dema Sakunda Diesel Power Plant, the Zesa technology transfer agreement with India’s PME, and the US$35m Afrexim-Zesa loan, among other issues,” Biti said.
Under vigorous cross-examination by lawmakers, Gata appeared to deflect and evade responsibility, saying the managers best suited to answer the questions were “no longer with Zesa”, but promised to “research the facts” and provide answers.
He also told lawmakers that the Dema diesel project had since been abandoned.
But Biti said that would not stop their inquiry, and advised Gata and his Zesa team to bring all the answers to their questions on Monday.
