By Marshall Bwanya
Harare —The Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) has fired its executive secretary, Godwin Phiri, and principal director, Academy Bvumayi Chinamhora, over a fuel theft scandal.
NewsHour established that the expulsions followed protracted proceedings involving a high-powered disciplinary tribunal.
The disciplinary hearings were informed by three audits reports—a preliminary internal investigation followed by a verification audit, then an external one conducted by a private consultant.
The respective audits unearthed an elaborate scheme involving missing fuel coupons, falsified payment transactions, and systemic internal control failures that prejudiced the commission of close to 80,000 litres in a deal that involved Petrotrade as the supplier between January 2023 and August 2024.
The external special report has been shared with the Office of the Auditor General (OAG), police, National Prosecuting Authority and Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC).
The special audit was conducted on the recommendation of the majority of the commissioners, who also agreed that disciplinary action must be taken against the top managers and other members of staff who had been fingered in the theft of fuel worth more than US$150,000.
The outgoing ZMC chairperson and university lecturer, Ruby Magosvongwe, would not confirm the firing of the two, but acknowledged the disciplinary proceedings.
“I would just say that there are disciplinary measures that are in process,” Magosvongwe told NewsHour.
Despite her guarded response, this publication verified that the two top executives had not been reporting for duty for weeks, even though, it emerged, they still held onto the commission’s assets that included cars and cellphones.
It appeared the fired directors were resisting the disciplinary tribunal’s decisions, amid reports that two named top government officials were opposed to their expulsion, alongside a few ZMC commissioners.
Some of these individuals reportedly received fuel coupons from the commission during the 2023 election period.
Chinamhora, when contacted for his comment, dismissed his expulsion.
“There is no disciplinary process that was done” was his terse response before ending the call.
Efforts to contact Phiri were fruitless.
Phiri, together with other alleged accomplices that include Tafadzwa Chikwiti (then chief accountant), Mercy Hondo (administration manager) and Revai Madire (administration officer), has already been arraigned before a court.
The accused last appeared before a Harare magistrate on 28 April and, our investigations revealed, are expected back in court on 20 November for set down and allocation of trial dates.
The other individuals who have been named in the three separate audits as having colluded in the theft of the fuel are Petros Dhokwani who was a senior accountant, and Roma Tawanda Hlomai, a former driver.
Phiri became the chief executive officer at ZMC with effect from 1 January 2023, the time when the fuel thefts are alleged to have started, according to the audits.
He replaced Chinamhora, who had been acting since Tafataona Mahoso left the position at the end of March 2022.
As the executive secretary, notes the leaked external audit report also circulating in the judicial system, Phiri was the accounting officer “required to control and be accountable for the management of public resources under is authority”.
And, as stipulated under Section 29 of the Public Finance Management Act, Chinamhora “was supposed to assist the executive secretary to play an oversight role on the operations of the commission”, a role he allegedly failed to fulfill.
