By Nigel Pfunde
National Patriotic Front (NPF) member and businessman Agrippa Bopela Masiyakurima on Wednesday dragged presidential spokesperson George Charamba into a tender manipulation and bribery storm, Zim Morning Post can report.
Bopela registered his accusations on Twitter, alleging that he turned down Charamba’s offer of awarding him a tower construction tender at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC).
He further accused Charamba, who uses the moniker, Jamwanda2 on Twitter, of attempting to recruit him into Zanu PF’s Lacoste faction in return for a bribe.
“Jojo, I assumed you’re intelligent enough to interpret and analyse that my life did not revolve around NetOne?
“If I was desperate, I could have taken your offer for ZBC towers, bribe you and join Lacoste. You failed to recruit me. Only dead fish go with the flow,” Bopela’s tweet read.
Charamba championed all digitalisation programmes implemented by Transmedia.
He clapped back in vernacular, accusing Bopela of being bitter.
He also insinuated that kharma was at play in Bopela’s life, as his fortunes were waning.
“Chaiseva chotemura!! Kutoita zvihasha nhai!! ( loosely translated to from grace to grass),” Charamba tweeted.
According to sources, the tiff between the two arose when a 2016 forensic audit at NetOne, unearthed that Bopela’s company was involved in alleged corrupt deals at NetOne.
“His company was cherry picked for a contract where it was supposed to supply and install base stations at 100 sites for the Mobile Broadband Project at a cost of US$52 000 per base station,” said our source.
“He was given an advance payment of US$500 000 and used strong connections to speed up payments for contracts he was not contracted to carry out,” further revealed our source.
Bopela is, however, on record vowing that he was not scared of Zanu PF’s alleged intimidatory tactics, including the potential freezing of his business accounts.
He has since ventured into solar energy business, giving credence to his claim that “my life does not revolve around NetOne”, in his jab aimed at Charamba. Zim Morning Post
