Minister of ICT & Cyber Security – Supa Mandiwanzira faced off against the likes of Mabvuku Tafara Legislator, James Maridadi during an ICT Parliamentary Committee hearing where he was quizzed on several ministerial issues including the day to day running of parastatals like NetOne, TelOne, ZARnet and the recent government takeover of Telecel.
In his responses to the legislators’ questioning, Supa said he did not fire Reward Kangai on the basis of settling any grudges but rather the decision was championed by a serious need to clean up a corrupt curtail that was operating at NetOne during the former CEO’s reign.
Supa also presented a bulk copy of the Auditor General’s report in which he said many dirty deals were unearthed under which Reward Kangai teamed up with various dodgy consultancy companies like Bopela in swindling NetOne huge amounts of money amounting to $120million.
He also explained in detail the Telecel takeover process in which he led a team of various experts in ensuring a smooth transition of Vimpelcom’s 60% stake in the mobile network operator to the government. The minister also made it clear that 60% government holding in Telecel doesn’t make it parastatal but rather continue as a private entity in which the Zimbabwean government will enjoy a profitable shareholding.