By Zvikomborero Parafini
Former Zimbabwe Power Company chairman Stanley Kazhanje was back in court yesterday where he testified as the sole witness in the defence case.
The defence led by Sylvester Hashiti, under the instruction of Garikai Mhishi opened, their case by the leading evidence from Kazhanje who told the court that he disclosed all the relevant facts to his principal ZPC.
Kazhanje stands accused of concealing a transaction with the intention to prejudice ZPC after he received a payment of $10 000 from controversial businessman Wicknell Chivayo’s company Intratek Zimbabwe.
“I disclosed all the relevant facts to the principal as said by one of the witnesses Saidi Sangula who confirmed that I mentioned that in my past life, I had done consultancy work for Intratek and that when the issue had arisen on some of the meetings, I informed my colleagues of that engagement,” said Kazhanje.
Kazhanje told Harare magistrate Hosea Mujaya that before he had sat on the ZPC board, he had done work f0or Chivayo in a different tender that was later cancelled.
“The work included some interaction with the ZPC management which involved comparing the compatibility of the equipment imported from Germany and China also the impossibility of getting a foreign company to do the feasibility studies.
“The ZPC management who were part of the team met with me so they knew I once engaged with Intratek so these allegations don’t make sense to me, there’s no way I would conceal the transaction, my previous engagement wasn’t relevant to the agenda.
“The board indicated that it was an issue of the past and there was no conflict of interest and they had nothing to do with the payment which they only got to know about in the press,” said Kazhanje.
When asked why the payment only came through in 2016 when he was now board chair yet the work had been done in 2014, Kazhanje said there was nothing unusual about late payments in the engineering business.
The matter was remanded to July 3 for continuation.
Brian Vito appeared for the State. H-Metro