Zesa Holdings chief executive Josh Chifamba, has with immediate effect, directed the power utility’s subsidiaries to stop any further payments for public relations consultancy to Fruitful Communications, a company owned by Zanu PF faithful Psychology Maziwisa.
This comes amid reports that more $32,000 of public funds from the Zimbabwe Power Company was on its way to the private firm’s bank account.
Energy and Power Development Minister Samuel Undenge directed ZPC and the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company to hand-pick Fruitful Communications to do public relations consultancy for the firms.
The directive came despite Zesa Holdings and its subsidiaries having fully-equipped public relations departments drawing full salaries and benefits.
The development saw the subsidiaries losing tens of thousands of dollars monthly.
Chifamba last Friday said the honeymoon was over for Maziwisa and his partner, former Zimbabwe Broadcasting Services anchorman Oscar Pambuka.
“That has been stopped on the spot,” he said. “These are public funds and we’ve directed the subsidiaries to stop any further payments. We’ve taken action on that.”
Minister Undenge concurred: “They’ve told us that the company has no unique skills and I’ve also told them to stop engaging them if they’re not adding value to their activities. You only pay for value addition and something which you don’t have.”
Minister Undenge’s shenanigans were exposed last week although he tried to downplay the issue saying the firm should have been engaged free of charge.
Maziwisa confirmed he was doing consultancy work for Zesa while Pambuka was evasive.
The development came at a time the financially hamstrung power utility is proposing to hike energy charges by an average 14 percent from 9.87 cents to 11.2 cents per kilowatt hour, further burdening industry and residents.
- Chronicle
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