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Prosper Dembedza Court Correspondent
THE second witness in the trial of former Energy Minister Elton Mangoma was yesterday taken to task by the accused’s lawyers on why he was in court after previously claiming to be a stranger to the case.

Mangoma is jointly charged with former Zesa Holdings chief executive Josh Chifamba and Zesa Enterprises (Zent) managing director Tererai Mutasa who are accused of corruptly awarding a US$3 million tender to a South Korean company, Techpro Private Limited, for the manufacture of switch gears in 2011.

Burutsa Mandipezano, who is Zent’s business development and commercial executive and acting managing director, told the court that he joined Zent in 2015 after the alleged offence was committed.

During cross-examination by one of the lawyers, Mandipezano said during the time the crime was allegedly committed he was working in Zambia.

Asked by Chifamba’s lawyer Mr Admire Rubaya whether he knows the person who lodged the complaint with the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission or not, Mandipezano said he had no knowledge.

He told the court that to date, there was no resolution from Zent that the three ought to be arrested.

During cross examination, Rubaya also suggested that the Techpro file, which was allegedly retrieved from Mutasa’s office might have been tampered with since no one knows how many people entered his office after he left.

Mandipezano told the court that he sent a secretary Edith Nyamande to retrieve the file from Mutasa’s office.

The trio will be back in court this Thursday for continuation of trial.

It is the State’s case that the trio allegedly entered into a technology transfer partnership with a South Korean company Techpro Company Limited for the manufacture of switch gears without following due process.

Five years down the line, Techpro Company failed to execute the project after getting an initial payment of $850 000.