Stolen receipts storm rocks Zesa

By Andile Tshuma

Some Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) officials have flown into the eye of a storm after receipts mysteriously disappeared from a banking hall in the Southern Region.

Five coded receipts are reported to have been stolen by suspected ZETDC employees at one of the banking halls in Bulawayo sometime last week.

Officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said manual receipts are usually issued for large cash transactions.

The parastatal has warned that it will not honour the stolen receipts numbers 124746, 124747, 124748, 124749 and 124750, and said members of the public must ensure they were not issued with them.

The missing receipts have raised a stink as fraud is suspected to be at play.

Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) spokesperson Mr Fullard Gwasira confirmed the incident in a telephone interview yesterday and said the company had since launched a probe.

“I can confirm that we are dealing with a case of manual receipts that went missing from one of our banking halls in the Southern Region. The matter is under investigation. I’ll be at liberty to divulge information once investigations are concluded,” said Mr Gwasira.

He said internal security personnel and auditors were working with ‘law enforcement agents’ in investigating the matter to bring the culprits to book.

Mr Gwasira said he feared that the receipts may have been stolen by someone who wanted to cash in on them by putting them to personal use.

“We urge the public to be on the alert and not to accept manual receipts with the issued receipt numbers as we fear that somebody may misrepresent that the receipt is for authentic ZETDC transactions. We have since disowned the receipts in question as a measure to try and curb potential criminal practice,” said Mr Gwasira.

In a statement, ZETDC advised the public that five receipts had gone missing from banking halls.

“The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company Western Region would like to advise its valued customers that the following manual receipts have gone missing from our Banking Halls. 124747, `124747, 124748, 124749, 124750,” read part of the statement.

“Any customer who might have been issued with the above receipt as “proof of payment” is hereby requested to approach our offices within the next fourteen days and get assistance from ZETDC officials.”

“ZETDC further advises that it would not honour any claim transacted on the above mentioned receipts after the expiry of the grace period of Monday, November 26 2018,” read the statement.

Affected customers were advised to contact Mr M Mpofu (Chief risk officer) on 0712 231 847 at ZETDC Western Region offices, corner Fife Street and 10th Avenue, Halco House Building office number 212.

Alternatively, customers may also contact the Senior Loss control officer Mr J Dhemba on 0772 261845 from the same premises at office number 221.

Bulawayo Police Spokesperson Inspector Precious Simango could not be reached for comment at the time of going to Press. The Chronicle