Former Energy and power Development minister Dzikamai Mavhaire has been convicted and fined $20 or rot in prison for four days.
Regional Magistrate Hosea Mujaya ordered Mavhaire to $20 after he had ruled that Mavhaire was willingly in default.
Mavhaire was last week slapped with a warrant of arrest after he was warned to come to court as a state witness in the ZPC matter involving Stanely Kazhanje.
In his defense Mavhaire said that he thought Kazhanje wanted to drag his name into mud.
Mavhaire is to testify on the matter of Kazhanje who was arrested and brought to court on allegations that on October 23, 2015 and while he was still chairperson at ZPC signed an Engineering Procurement and Construction contract of a 100 Megawatt Solar Project with Intratrek
It is alleged that during December 11 2015 to January 20 2016, ZPC paid Intratrek $1 263 154 in advance for the implementation of the project.
However, the State alleged that Intratrek did not fulfill its obligation, resulting in the management suggesting termination of the contract.
It is further said that on 21 January 2016 and under unclear circumstances, Kazhanje allegedly received $10 000 into his personal Barclay’s Bank account from Intratrek’s CBZ bank account.
It is the state’s case that in his capacity as ZPC’s board chairperson, Kazhanje presided over a meeting where it was resolved that ZPC must pay services direct to Intratrek subcontractors instead of terminating the contract.
This resulted in ZPC paying $4 387 849 as advance payment despite the fact that Intratrek had not fulfilled its obligation.
It is the State’s case that the $10 000 deposited into Kazhanje and the subsequent resolution not to terminate Intratrek’s contract gave rise to reasonable suspicion that Kazhanje was influenced by this payment to decide in favour of Intratrek.
By so doing, the state alleged that Kazhanje failed to declare any interests upon his appointment as the ZPC chairperson.
Magistrate Mujaya ordered Mavhaire to however appear in court on 15 April to testify in the trial without fail.
