MINES ministry secretary Onesimo Moyo and Zimbabwe
Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) chief executive officer Morris Mpofu are
facing contempt of Parliament charges for ordering witnesses not to attend a hearing
before the Mines Portfolio Committee in which Hwange Colliery is alleged to
have lost $6,4 million in unclear circumstances.
Last week, parastatals affiliated to the Mines ministry and
other witnesses turned up to appear before the Temba Mliswa-led committee to
give oral evidence when Moyo instructed Mpofu to send messages that the meeting
had been cancelled.
Despite the messages, the Hwange Colliery board and
Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe chairman David Murangari stayed on
to be grilled by the committee, while several other witnesses left before the
hearing.
“When you are summoned by Parliament, you must attend because
Parliament is another arm of the State which is run by its own rules and you
(Moyo), what authority did you use to tell everyone not to attend, because if
you do not explain, we will charge you with contempt of Parliament and when we
invite you to appear before the committee, we are not playing games?” Mliswa
said.
Moyo’s excuse was that the letter to summon the ministry
before Parliament had been written in such a way that all other witnesses were
supposed to accompany the Mines minister Winston Chitando.
The excuses did not augur well with the MPs and the
committee then instructed Moyo to write a formal letter to Parliament giving
his reasons why he instructed people not to attend the committee meeting or he
would be charged with contempt. Newsday
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