A ZIMBABWE Manpower Development Fund (Zimdef) contractor, who was alleged to be a fugitive from justice in the United States, was never convicted of any crime in that country, it has emerged.
Zimdef was last week accused of giving Tawanda Wallen
Mangere of Tano Digital Solutions a huge information technology contract
without doing background checks.
Mangere’s rivals claimed that he had served a jail term in
the United States for fraud or that he had fled America fearing incarceration.
The US embassy in Harare linked NewsDay to Fulton County
Magistrates’ Court in Georgia, where Mangere was detained for about 90 minutes.
A case was opened against the Zimbabwean businessman on
March 17, 2010 under case No 308457MC.
“There is no criminal case against Mr Mangere. He has no
pending legal issues. He is not a fugitive,” said Bryant Brinson, a supervisor
at the Fulton County court in emailed responses to NewsDay.
Nicole Vaughn, director for customer service at the Fulton
County District Attorney’s office said: “I found no open or pending cases with
Mr Mangere’s name in our office.”
According to a document received from Brinson, signed on
Wednesday by Mary Conklin, a clerk at the Fulton court, Mangere was charged for
deposit account fraud (felony), but the case was dismissed.
“The case was heard before a Fulton County Magistrate
judge, who ordered that the charge against Wallen Mangere be dismissed on
04/14/2011,” part of the deposition of the magistrates’ case read.
An investigation by NewsDay showed that Mangere has been
going in and out of the US and his last visit was on December 17, 2019 using
passport No FN812449 just before the COVID-19 outbreak.
Mangere dismissed the allegations against him as a smear
campaign.
“I will not say much, considering that this is natural in
business,” he said. “There is always resistance to new entrants resulting in
market rivalry. “However, I am happy that the market is aware of the
machinations and smear campaigns happening on the ground.
“In the spirit of national building, this is the time to
embrace the ethos of the national development strategy (NDS1) and one of the 14
key a national priority is the digital economy.”
He added:
“Accordingly, instead of smearing each other, we are committed and we
will not waiver in this resolve to move our country forward and help in the
implementation of the goals and targets towards to assist the country achieve
the upper middle class status by 2030 through the digital transformation of our
key national institutions.” Newsday
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