Parliament admits no documents support July Moyo’s US$62 million fire tender deal

The Parliament of Zimbabwe has no documentation to support a fire tenders deal which will see President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Belarus ally Alyaksandr Zingman pocketing over US$62 million just for providing 63 rural district councils, 32 urban local authorities and metropolitan provinces with fire engines at highly inflated prices.

Clerk of Parliament Kennedy Chokuda confirmed there were no documents to support the deal.

This comes after the Local Government Ministry led by July Moyo, in a 14 June 2022 memorandum to all local authorities in the country directed each rural local authority to purchase a single fire tender.

Zimbabwe has 63 rural district councils (RDCs). With the 63 rural authorities each receiving one fire engine, the dealers are set to receive US$29 250 648, while an additional US$29 714 944 is set to be paid for by 32 urban local authorities which are expected to receive two fire engines each from Zingman.

It has also been noted that Harare and Bulawayo metropolitan provinces are set to receive three fire engines each for at least US$2 785 776.

This translates to a total of US$61 751 368 that will be taken from the devolution funds amid uproar from local authorities and members of Parliament who view the deal as corrupt while threatening to use all legal routes to block it

Last week, Chitungwiza Residents Trust director Alice Kuvheya wrote to Parliament demanding access to the documents signed between the government and Belarus approving the deal.

But Chokuda in a letter dated June 27, said Parliament had no such information.

“Reference is made to your letter dated 23 June 2022 regarding the above matter. Parliament of Zimbabwe is not in possession of the documents listed in Paragraph three of your letter,” read the letter.

The line Ministry, however, made it clear in a memorandum to all local authorities addressed to town clerks in the case of cities, town secretaries in the case of urban local authorities and chief executive officers failing to pay, the funds to procure the equipment will be deducted from the 2022 devolution allocations and will be done over a period of 12 months starting March 2022.