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Nyore Madzianike Senior Court Reporter

Over 1 000 smart meters supplied by Helcraw Electrical Engineering Company to Zesa, in a deal now alleged to have fraudulent aspects, have been fitted and are working with the power utility generating revenue from them, an arrested Harare region section metering engineer, Leonard Chisina, yesterday told his bail hearing magistrate.

Chisina told Harare magistrate, Mr Lazini Ncube that there was no misrepresentation made to Zesa’s distribution arm, ZETDC, when Helcraw Electrical Engineering supplied the meters and Zesa was satisfied with them after they passed the gate-keeping stage of assessing their quality.

He made the assertion when he took to the witness stand to support his bail application in a matter in which he is jointly charged with another suspended ZETDC engineer, Freeman Kuziva, and Helcraw Electrical managing director, Farai Jere.

Chisina, Kuziva and Jere are jointly charged with fraud involving US$3 566 878.

The State alleges that the three did not have the meters checked at the factory that made them, as required by the contract, and that they then falsified, or allowed to be falsified, the paperwork to show that the missing factory check had been completed.

“Before we went to the United Kingdom, the sample meters supplied by Helcraw were tested and they met 90 percent of our requirements. When we went to the United Kingdom, what was missing was the production line as they had been shipped from India,” he said. “The factory we visited was in Bristol, in the UK, and that is where we conducted the tests. By time we went to the UK, the contract was already signed and the meters had passed the gate-keeping stage. We never made any misrepresentation to the company.

“All the 1 151 meters plus another two percent for contingencies, are currently working and they are in the system. They were tested for compliance by ZETDC labs and our engineers confirmed that they had tested the meters. They have been installed since 2019 and ZETDC are receiving a lot of revenue from the meters.”

Chisina told the court that there was no Zesa resolution to uninstall the meters, which was made before his suspension as the State alleges, adding that he was a proper candidate for bail as he was eager to go through the legal processes to clear his name.

He presented himself to the police within the shortest period of time after being called for interviews.

Fellow accused Kuziva, who also took to the witness stand and chronicled how they travelled to the UK for factory tests, said there was no misrepresentation done over the smarts meters.

Testifying in support of bail, he said there was no way he could evade the court’s jurisdiction and taint his 30 years of working experience because of “cooked” allegations.

Jere, who was represented by Mr Tinofara Hove, said the allegations against him were raised in a bid to elbow him out of the smart meter project, which was supposed to go on a roll-out programme which would see his company selling a lot more. He told the court that he was an accomplished businessman, who also wants to clear his name and business.

The State, led by Mr George Manokore and Mrs Tinashe Makiya had opposed Jere and the two Zesa engineers receiving bail, saying they were facing a serious offence that attracts a custodial sentence, which may induce them to flee court’s jurisdiction.

Mr Manokore said the State had overwhelming evidence and feared the accused might interfere with investigations.

Jere, Chisina and Kuziva are expected back in court tomorrow for bail ruling.

The State said the three were persons of means and given the opportunity may choose to find alternatives places of residence to flee the jurisdiction.

“They face up to 25 years upon conviction.

“The witnesses were there in United Kingdom and saw that there was no factory in question. The State has a strong case against them,” he said.

Jere, Chisina and Kuziva are expected to be back in court tomorrow for bail ruling.