So there is a craze that is going on that can potentially change a lot, by a lot I mean a lot. We talking board re-appointments, job dismissals, jail time for some, and most importantly how we will view the president from hereon. Whatever move His Excellence makes in response to this matter is going to define how we perceive him as president.
The craze hinges on a letter addressed to the president by Reward Kangai, the former CEO of NetOne, a state owned Mobile Network Operator (MNO). In the letter, Mr Reward accuses some individuals in the industry, moreso the Minister of ICT and Cyber Security of building a cartel or shall I say a cabal of corrupt looters.
I’m not promising that this article will uncover all we need to know about the cartel (or not), but it surely will give us some pointers. In fact, all I’m going to do is tell you what we know about the individuals of interest and the rest is up to you. Remember, as it stands these are just but allegations, allegations which make a lot of sense I must say.
There’s quite a number mentioned, but we’ve picked out a few that we think are ‘more relevant than the others’ and these are: Francis Mawindi, Brian Mutandiro, Ozias Bvute, Sibusisiwe Ndhlovu, Alex Marufu, Kudakwashe Nyashanu, Darlington Gutu, Peter Chingoka and Goodson Nguni.
Francis Mawindi
- So Mr Mawindi once worked at PTC, remember PTC? Posts and Telecommunications Corporation of Zimbabwe which was disbanded in 2000 only to create several other government owned companies from it namely NetOne Zimbabwe , TelOne and Zimpost.
- His exit at PTC is flagged to be suspicious in the Kangai letter.
- Mr Mawindi was also the general manager of Brightpoint, an outsourcing company operating within the supply chain of the Zimbabwean telecommunications industry. It is reported (in Kangai’s letter) that Brightpoint supplied NetOne with a malfunctioning prepaid platform that cost NetOne loss of customers during the 1998-1999 period.
- Mawindi joined Telecel Zimbabwe in July 2012 where he was the CEO but was dismissed less than a year into his contract with the MNO. Apparently Mawindi had deposited large sums of Telecel funds into MetBank without the authority of the Board. What then made matters worse is that Telecel was later unable to withdraw that money in order to meet its licence obligations with POTRAZ.
Why is he relevant to this case?
Regardless of the nature of his exit from PTC, involvement with Brightpoint and dismissal at Telecel; Hon. Supa vouched for him to become COO at NetOne, though the attempt failed according to Kangai.
Brian Mutandiro
- Brian Mutandiro was also once at PTC as CEO.
- He at some point was the chairman at POTRAZ.
- He then became COO of NetOne after Mr Mawindi failed to secure that position.
- Brian Mutandiro has been acting CEO of NetOne for almost 2 years now since 14/03/2016.
Why is he relevant to this case?
Regardless of being fired for corruption at PTC, not meeting the qualifications of the job as per job advertisement (again according to Kangai); he still got the position of COO at NetOne.
He was also appointed as POTRAZ chairman by Hon. Supa
Lastly, reports say that he is related to minister Supa Mandiwanzira. That’s a difficult one to prove.
Ozias Bvute
- Bvute was a board member of a Namibian SME Bank, which was busted while making ‘risky investments’ in South Africa, this led to the bank being taken over by the Bank of Namibia in March 2017.
- Bvute was head of the Integration Implementation Committee of the then Zimbabwe Cricket Union in 2001, where he was accused of mismanaging US$6 million dollars by investing it in a bank on whose board he sat.
- He was appointed chairman of POTRAZ by Supa Mandiwanzira regardless of not having been cleared for the job by CIO so says Kangai.
- Kangai alleges that he instructed POTRAZ to buy stands from Crowhill (which he owns by the way) using the Universal Service Fund (USF).
- Bvute is the current CEO of Metbank.
Why is he relevant to this case?
Well, there is quite a lot on Ozias. Better detail can be found on this article here.
Sibusisiwe Ndhlovu
- Sibusisiwe is the former director of Metbank
- She was forced to resign at Metbank after a forensic audit at Afre Holdings sanctioned by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe found her unsuitable to hold public office.
- She was appointed CFO at NetOne
- It is her who presented the evidence that saw Kangai being investigated for mismanagement of funds and later dismissed as CEO of NetOne.
Why is she relevant to this case?
Her association with MetBank and how she landed the CFO job at NetOne after being found unsuitable for holding public office.
Alex Marufu
- Alex Marufu is the former chairman of the NetOne board.
- He was forced to resign from that position after being reported to be abusing his position and funds at NetOne.
Why is he relevant to this case?
Alex Marufu was (also) behind the restructuring of the NetOne board, an action alleged to be adding up to some grand scheme. His reasoning was that there were some empires that needed to be destroyed at NetOne. The restructuring saw the hiring of Sibusisiwe Ndhlovu, Brian Mutandiro, and Kudakwashe Nyashanu
Again, Mr Marufu re-located to South Africa during his reign as chairman of the NetOne board. Kangai allerges that while he was there, with the approval of Hon. Supa, guards were placed at his home in Harare at NetOne’s cost. Not only that, but he frequented the country for NetOne Board meetings which happened unusually often and of course, these costs were covered by NetOne.
Kudakwashe Nyashanu
- Appointed Executive Human Resources at NetOne
Why is he relevant to this case?
He was previously employed at Tarcon where Mandiwanzira has an interest.
Darlington Gutu
- Darlington Gutu is the NetOne CTO
Why is he relevant to this case?
According to Kangai, Mr Gutu was a false witness to the forensics audit that wrongfully accused him (Kangai) of changing sites for base stations and failing to develop base stations etc. without the necessary facts. Kangai claims that according to sources from NetOne, Mr Gutu did this in exchange of retaining his position as CTO as he had been promised.
Peter Chingoka
- Peter Chingoka became chairman of the NetOne board after Marufu’s resignation.
- He was also the president of Zimbabwe cricket
- He is a non executive director at Metbank
Why is he relevant to this case?
He is involved with Metbank.
Goodson Nguni
- Goodson Nguni is the current Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) member in charge of investigations.
- He is a Zimbabwean politician
- He is also an activist
- Goodson Nguni is a Zanu-PF loyalist.
Why is he relevant to this case?
He was left in charge of handling the corruption investigations of cases involving two of the above mentioned individuals but up to date, nothing tangible has materialised.
The cases are:
- The case pertaining to the appointment of Brian Mutandiro as COO at NetOne – submitted on the 14th March 2016; and
- The case of Mr Alex Marufu abusing his office – submitted on the 9th December 2016.
There you have it, do any dots connect? Kangai himself is probably a disgruntled man with an axe to grind so that has to be put into perspective.
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18 comments
You have laid it all out clearly. It is clear most of these people definitely have no knowledge or experience not only of holding public office but being in management in the first place. Their stupid plan shows huge deficiency in basic analysis and logic. They should all be investigated & put in the slammer. starting with Nguni.
Reward Kangai is busy smearing everyone with a poison brush but he can’t hide away from the evidence presented by a 3rd party forensic audit. All the noise he is making will soon come to pass and guess what, you can run but you can not hide. Only the guilty ones make the loudest noise but the gates of jail are waiting for you with a long arm of Justice. PEC did it’s part and found you guilty of mismanagement, misappropriation of company resources and flouting of company policies and procurement procedures. Chikurubi is waiting for you. Say your lady prayers brother
Supa, is that you? Guess who is going to prison, mate? Look in the mirror, Thief Mandiwanzira.
This is all Fake News. Techzim must stick to responsible journalism and let the responsible institutions deal with Kangai’s false allegations and innuendos. Desperate times call for Desperate measures
Time to take on Fake News head on
Fake News from an activist Techzim. Stick to responsible journalism and not nefarious allegations and innuendos. Kangai is definitely guilty of fraud and is going to be arrested soon. Watch this space for further details.
Time to call out Fake Media for what it is
Point out the fake news. Kangai has a case to answer and so does Supa
Why is Techzim stretching it out and peddling falsehoods about RK’s accusations in an International digital platform without verifying the facts with those accused. This is pathetic journalism and should be dismissed with the contempt that it deserves. Defamation lawsuits are coming and be preferred to spent some with your attorneys. Irresponsible pseudo journalists. Shindi dzevanhu!!!
Your days of intimidating people into silence are over, moron. You are afraid of a courtroom Supa, very scared. You and your cronies are chickenfeed in any court of law in this country. You can silence everyone with that arrogant bullying because not everyone works for you. Answer the charges instead of intimidating people reporting facts like a guilty coward.
You need an editor to review your articles for grammar, and language.
i agree, techzim sucks, i will not let my children read this. this techzim seems to made of of people with below average writing and logical skill sets! i see this crap website going down this year, unless some dumb fool sponsors these techzim fools !
get your lawyers ready you dumbos !!!
excellent, i got the offending articles, downloaded and saved. thank you
Thanks for the info techzim this is hard hitting…. But o think you should put kangai record as well after all he was with first tel.
.. Remember that scam..
techZim I have to say, you wrote this article very well, I am impressed. I loved how strived to keep your points relevant.
Shame on You Techzim for trying very hard to defend the indefensible. RK is guilty of poor management, corruption,gross incompetence looting and rubble rousing people who have nothing to do with his woes. He must focus on getting a good lawyer to kept him out of prison otherwise he is toast
Great article techzim
You touched the right nerve techzim, never mind the abuse above. These are probably from Supa and those with soiled fingers that you have correctly analyzed because havasi kuvata vanhu ivava, running scared. However, this one is going to be an interesting one. For starters RK has posed these guys serious problems by putting all these allegations in the public domain. For ZACC or President to dismiss them without proper inquiry (mind you, RK is by extension saying I am open to a full probe by recommending a commission of inquiry) will tell us plainly how much hope we should put in this rhetoric of fighting corruption by the present regime. If they sweep this one under as utterances already coming from ZACC that Supa is innocent, hee-ee we cannot see evidence of corruption and looting of $4m, heee RK has a case to answer instead —ummm boys, hakuna nyika yakadaro. LET THERE BE A FULL INQUIRY, period. And from the look of things ZACC is not equipped so lets make it a judicial one. But Supa is clever, looks like he is nicely covered in all factions. Remember he was almost a goner in 2014 on suspicion he was a Mujuru sympathizer. This time round although we know his connection to Grace through his wife, he survived coming out as a Lacoste and most importantly keeping his Ministry so that he keeps his misdeeds under wraps for a little longer. Now it is emerging that one Oppah might have rung the bell that is saving Supa. Now, while I don’t mind all these machinations and in fact expect them, I will be a disappointed cadre if ED is sucked in by it all and hopes that we the people do not see through this smoke. We see clearly and believe that Supa is dirty. He has a chance to nail someone who is not G40 but part of the corrupt lot in ZPF – how committed is he to clear this cancer, or is it just rhetoric? Our votes are still very much in the air good people, the euphoria of heee kutonga kwaro, heee mudhara achauya is wearing away fast…. and we are watching
A commission of enquiry makes sense under the circumstances. You can’t appoint people to jobs that are beyond their capabilities such as Goodson Nguni. He is just parroting ignorance of the highest order. Both Kangai & Supa should have their day in court to clear their names as there seem to be prima facie cases in the allegations. Don’t fear a court of law, it’s the most competent platform to clear your name