The Sunday Mail
Sunday Mail Reporter
ALLIED Timbers Zimbabwe (ATZ) has appointed Mr Trymore Chivinge as acting chief executive officer following the arrest of the entity’s boss Remigio Nenzou.
Nenzou, who was the acting chief executive, was arrested on November 26 on allegations of criminal abuse of office and is currently on bail.
According to a board resolution signed-off by the chairman, Mr Itayi Ndudzo, on Wednesday last week, Mr Chivinge’s appointment is with immediate effect.
“It was resolved that Mr Trymore Chivinge be appointed acting chief executive officer with immediate effect until this resolution is revised by the board or until the confirmation of a substantive chief executive officer by the Minister (Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry).
“…the appointment of Mr R Nenzou as acting CEO be rescinded until a further decision is made by the board.”
Allegations against Nenzou are that on October 30, 2019, he verbally instructed his procurement officer Innocent Shenje to write to the chief executive of the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ) Mr Nyasha Chizu.
In the letter to Mr Chizu, Nenzou requested ATZ to be exempted from following procurement procedures when procuring a sawmill machine from a German company, MS-Maschinenbau-GmbH, for US$1,1 million.
It is alleged that ATZ had no money in its account and Nenzou corruptly made a set-off arrangement where the company would allocate trees at one of its estates to Timber Care Investments of China in return for settlement of US$1,1 million to MS-Maschinenbau-GmbH.
The balance of US$720 000,54 would be credited directly into ATZ’s Agribank account. Timber Care Investments of China was then allocated the trees from Tarka Estate Plantation valued at US$1,848 million.
In his defence, through his lawyer Mr William Madzimbamuto, Nenzou argues that the issues raised did not constitute an offence as he was not a public official because ATZ is a private company, although Government is a shareholder.
Magistrate Mrs Esthere Chivasa last week granted $10 000 bail to Nenzou with orders to report once every month to the Zimbabwe Anti Corruption Commission, not to interfere with witnesses and to continue residing at his given address.
