By Correspondent
Believing that Mike Chimombe and Moses Mpofu are cornered criminals in an actual campaign against corruption is poor logic.
The factual narrative around their eventual arrest smacks of a corrupt union gone bust.
The two were initially arrested for fraud in a Presidential Goat Scheme.
However, the company which they used to get the tender, Blackdeck, was actually deregistered from the NSSA system in January 2016.
Yet, the Ministry of Agriculture signed a contract with Blackdeck on November 16, 2021.
Blackdeck was given an order to supply and deliver 632,001 goats valued at US$87.7 million.
Between April and June 2022, the Ministry transferred a total of Z$1.6 billion.
This was equivalent to US$7,712,197, into the Blackdeck bank account.
When the contract was ultimately cancelled in 2022, Blackdeck had supplied only 4,208 goats.
The total value was US$331,445.
The remaining US$7,380,751 was never recovered.
In a country where the government is a Mafia syndicate, no sane person can believe the two got and used all that money alone.
Bad History, Yet New Partnership
Prior to the street lights deal the duo of Chimombe and Mpofu had previously won another tender at Harare Council.
Council received grant of US$550,000 from the European Union (EU) for the construction of a bio-digester in Mbare and the Green Market.
It was given to Chimombe and Mpofu who allegedly looted the funds and delivered substandard work.
The case was reported to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) and yet nothing happened.
No one was ever arrested because the two were still in good books with the alpha Mafia in the syndicate.
One condition for all those applying for the street lights tender was that bidders show specific experience of work history with the City of Harare.
The duo indeed had a history with Harare which was warning enough for both Council and the Procurement Authority of Zimbabwe.
Again, since they were still on one side with the controllers, it was never an issue.
They got the tender again.
The list of missing and wrong things on their applications are too many to be overlooked.
Investigations revealed that their company, Blackdeck did not have a valid tax clearance.
The QR code and reference on the NSSA compliance certificate were also issued to a different company.
The only reason any of this was never picked was due to the prevailing relations with the power-players in higher offices.
However, it all imploded the moment the two began agitating for their share of spoils in the US$40 million ZEC biometric deal.
Leaked audios with subtle threats to Wicknel Chivayo and Ren-Form, the suppliers of elections material were the deal breaker.
Suddenly the two were problem children upon whom an example had to be set.
