Moses Mpofu and wife face a fraud trial on Valentine's Eve

So, yeah, Valentine’s Eve went from cute couple vibes to remand prison and, now, a courtroom date that absolutely nobody asked for.

Top of the pile, what is happening now

• The calendar is doing Moses Mpofu and his wife Nobukhosi dirty, because Valentine’s Eve is now scheduled for court, not romance.
• The setting is the High Court, and the event is an indictment in Moses Mpofu’s second fraud trial.
• The mood is not rekindling; it is accused people waiting to get formally pulled into the next stage of a fraud case.

Who is in the mix

• Moses Mpofu is in this, and he is already serving a lengthy jail term after being convicted of fraud during a previous trial.
• Nobukhosi, Moses Mpofu’s wife, is also in this, and she is headed to court right alongside him.
• Vusimuzi James Mpofu, described as the businessman’s brother, is charged with them.
• Synlak (Pvt) Ltd is part of the case because Moses Mpofu is appearing on behalf of his company and in his personal capacity.
• Jessie Kufa, a Harare regional magistrate, is the one they appeared before yesterday.
• The State is the complainant, and City of Harare Acting Town Clerk, Mabhena Moyo, is representing it.

Where it sits on the timeline

• Last year did not have a Valentine’s Eve romance moment because Moses Mpofu was in remand prison during his trial, which ended in a fraud conviction.
• Yesterday, Moses Mpofu, Nobukhosi, and Vusimuzi James Mpofu appeared in front of Harare regional magistrate Jessie Kufa.
• February 13 is the remand date, and that is when the court date lands for this Valentine’s Eve courtroom situation.

What the money and project were

• EUR €350,500.00 showed up as a grant award in December 2013, and the City of Harare received it from the European Union.
• The planned work was specific because it involved the design and construction of 4 by 200m3 biogas digesters, plus the supply, installation, and commissioning of a 100KVA biogas generator.
• Mbare biogas project is the named project that this grant was tied to, and it is sitting at the center of the allegations.

How the contract path got set up

• A grant contract got locked in between the City of Harare and the European Union, represented by the European Commission.
• January 30, 2015, turned into a progress meeting, because City of Harare representatives met with the European Union Delegation.
• Mr Jorge Pereiro, Mr Severin Mellac, and Mr Martin Zhou were listed as the European Union Delegation representatives in that meeting.
• The Bio-Based Waste Management Project was the focus because that was the implementation progress they were there to deliberate on, and it was being funded by the EU.
• February 15, 2015, brought a notice authorising the City of Harare to launch a public tender, but it came with a condition that the contract should be awarded by March 31, 2015.
• Vusumuzi was positioned as Project Supervisor at that meeting, which is a neat detail that later stops looking neat.

Which companies answered the tender

• Four companies showed up in the tender response list, which is kind of the whole lineup, because Synlak (Pvt) Limited, The Mongrel Investments (Pvt) Limited, Sneydon Investments (Pvt) Limited, and Contech Contractors (Pvt) Limited responded.
• Synlak (Pvt) Limited sits extra loud in the background because Moses Mpofu is tied to it, and the court record keeps pulling it forward.

What they said they would do

• A payment promise got made because Moses Mpofu and his accomplices pledged that an invoice for payment would be submitted within 60 days after the installation and commissioning of the biogas plant.
• A schedule promise got layered on top because they also pledged that their prices would be valid for 90 days, during which the project would be completed.

What the court says happened next

• A letter apparently got pushed toward Tendai Kwenda, the then Director of Finance for the City of Harare, asking for a phased payment schedule with an advance payment of US$186 116.00.
• No invoice was raised, which is the kind of detail that makes the whole advance-payment request feel extra loud.
• Tendai Kwenda is flagged as yet to be arrested, which is sitting there like an unresolved thread.

Why that letter matters

• The tender award was framed around financial muscle, because the bidder had pledged that they had the financial muscle to carry out works to commissioning before making claims for payments.
• That is why the advance-payment ask is described as happening notwithstanding the basis of the award, because the contract logic was, do the work through commissioning, then start claiming payments.