ROAD administrator, Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara) wielded the axe on chief executive officer Nancy Masiyiwa-Chamisa on Thursday as the corruption scandal rocking the parastatal reached tipping point.
BY RICHARD CHIDZA
Masiyiwa-Chamisa has reportedly crossed swords with Transport minister Joram Gumbo, who stands accused of protecting a group of senior managers whose jobs were on the line for various offences.
Board chairperson Wilfred Ramwi refused to comment on the matter and only said: “I am sorry, I will not be talking to you. It’s unfortunate.” Masiyiwa-Chamisa could neither deny nor confirm the development.
“I cannot comment,” she said. The Zinara board has reportedly met five times in the past six weeks and the legal secretary, identified as Mujokoro, argued it had sought authority from Gumbo. “I do not speak on behalf of the board, but all I can say is we are supposed to meet once every quota, but all other meetings have the authority of the minister,” she said.
According to the letter of suspension signed by Ramwi, Masiyiwa-Chamisa was suspended with pay and benefits. Charges against the Zinara boss include “willful abuse of authority and victimisation of officers of the authority based on factors not driven from recorded detail or their conduct and performance.”
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Masiyiwa-Chamisa is also accused of gross incompetence or “ineffectiveness in the performance of your duties” and abuse of office after allegedly fraudulently claiming Zinara had guaranteed her personal loan from a local bank.
“The facts giving rise to the charges are the following: you suspended and instituted disciplinary proceedings against Simon Taranhike and Precious Murove being senior employees in circumstances where there was no reasonable cause for you to do so and you were aware that they acted in the interest of the authority and national interest,” the letter reads.
“You sought the dismissal of the said employees without the authority of the Minister for Transport. You did not fully and punctually report to the board the criminal proceedings against the employees of the authority in which you were a witness.”
Following a board resolution to institute disciplinary proceedings against Taranhike, Murove, Peter Botere and Shadreck Matengabadza, Ramwi in July last year was tasked by the board to write a warning letter to Masiyiwa-Chamisa “in light of Zinara’s loss of revenue as a result of the finance director’s conduct”.
But the board was later to be arm-twisted at Gumbo’s behest to drop charges against the senior executive through a letter that indicated all dismissals of directors needed ministerial approval.
After a series of meetings, in August last year Ramwi and his board capitulated deciding to withdraw the charges against the four “to save ourselves from impending embarrassment.”