THE Grain Marketing Board (GMB) has suspended the Belmont
depot manager in Bulawayo together with his four subordinates for allegedly
diverting subsidised mealie-meal and other Silo Foods Industries products to
the black market.
Sources said the depot manager, Mr Stanley Chimakira, was
allegedly working with his sidekicks in the sales department, Mr Buhle Dube and
Mr Vincent Gwariro, in channelling the Government-subsided roller meal to the
black market.
Mr Chimakira was also allegedly working with two others
employees, Mr Tashin Kamangira and Ms Samkeliso Nyathi, who are both counter
sales clerks.
The underhand dealings within the parastatal were recently
unearthed following an internal audit, which was preceded by an investigation
into operations at Silo Foods Industries in the city by a roller meal taskforce
chaired by Industry and Commerce Deputy Minister Raj Modi, who confirmed the
suspensions of the five GMB employees.
The taskforce reported the matter to the Zimbabwe
Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc).
The recently constituted roller meal task force’s mandate
is to ensure transparent and equitable distribution of the product throughout
the entire supply chain.
Sources told The Chronicle that Mr Chimakira and Mr Dube
were the ring leaders of the syndicate, which also includes some unscrupulous
illegal traders who sell the roller-meal in United States dollars.
“The depot manager and people in the sales department
operated as a syndicate to feed the black market with the subsidised
mealie-meal. In some cases, you would see a 30-ton truck transporting
mealie-meal to these pseudo shops and starving registered traders and other big
supermarkets,” said the source.
The Chronicle established that soon after the maize
taskforce unearthed the underhand dealings, an internal audit revealed that
about 90 percent of the business transactions were not above board.
“The manager and his four subordinates at GMB Belmont depot
have since been suspended indefinitely without pay and benefits pending
hearings. The main reason behind their suspensions is that they were fuelling
the black market by providing subsidised mealie-meal to unregistered traders in
return for kickbacks,” said the source, who also revealed that a new team from
Harare has been deployed to the Belmont depot.
“There is a guy from Harare who is now running the depot
and he is being assisted by another one who came from the Gweru depot.”
Deputy Minister Modi said the suspensions follow
investigations by his task force, which has since managed to identify
syndicates causing artificial mealie-meal shortages.
“My taskforce team recently unearthed serious irregularities
at the GMB depot in Belmont and the manager and his team were involved in
diverting subsidised roller meal to the black market. As I speak, they have
been suspended pending hearings,” he said.
“In fact, from the Government position, we are quite disturbed
by what we have discovered and some of the culprits responsible for creating
supply and distribution anomalies have been identified.”
Deputy Minister Modi said there are cases of Silo
roller-meal in Bulawayo being sold on the black-market right in front of the
Silo Shop.
“It is partly through these illegal vendors that we are
conducting investigations and tracing it back to the source of the crime,” he
said.
Investigations by the maize taskforce following their
surprise visit to the Silo Foods Industries’ factory at the Belmont industrial
area indicated that GMB employees were allegedly diverting the subsidised
roller meal meant for retailers to the black market.
The taskforce also allegedly discovered an invoice book
that was being used by the perpetrators of the scam.
Deputy Minister Modi said the task force is making
follow-ups with major suppliers and retailers of mealie-meal. This follows
critical shortages of the commodity on the market after Government
re-introduced a subsidy programme to ensure that roller meal in particular, is
available at an affordable price to consumers.
Zimbabwe’s annual maize consumption stands at 1,8 million
tonnes. Contacted for comment yesterday, GMB general manager Mr
Rockie Mutenha feigned ignorance over the suspensions.
“I am not aware of the suspensions that you are talking
about. As far as I know, those people who are purported to have been suspended
are actually at work as we speak and you can even go there and check for
yourself,” he said.
Last month, our sister paper, The Sunday News reported that
Zacc discovered that some employees were allegedly channelling as much as 10
000 bags of 20kg roller meal to the black market. Consumers have been battling
to access roller meal, which is presently being subsidised by Government.
The paper also reported that there was a cartel of
retailers and vendors who were hoarding mealie-meal in Victoria Falls and
selling it in hard currency to Zambian cross-border vendors on the black
market.
Zambian media reports indicate that mealie-meal brands from
Zimbabwe have flooded the Livingstone market.
The Zimbabwean products are sold at relatively lower prices
when compared to the Zambian products due to the subsidy programme.
Deputy Minster Modi said they have extended their
investigations to the country’s borders where subsidised mealie meal is
smuggled out of the country.
“Our routine involves checking what the suppliers get and
from who, names of retailers that received the product and the customers that
bought the mealie-meal,” he said.
Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli
Ncube recently revealed through the Zimpapers Television Network (ZTN) that
smuggling of mealie-meal had become rampant. Besides mealie-meal, a variety of
other products such as sugar, rice and juices are smuggled out of the country
using both legal and illegal exit points.
According to investigations, some Government officials are
said to be heavily involved in the scam.
Last month, Parliament heard that GMB senior executives
were allegedly allocating subsidised maize to millers who are allegedly
diverting it to the black market and countries such as the Democratic Republic
of Congo (DRC). Herald
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