Chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Budget, Finance, and Economic Development, Dr. Energy Mutodi, has issued an unreserved apology to Finance Ministry Permanent Secretary George Guvamatanga, days after publicly accusing him of running a systemic corruption scheme involving millions of dollars in alleged kickbacks.
In a press release dated October 3, Mutodi said he had reflected on his relationship with Guvamatanga and, after a telephone conversation with the Treasury boss, concluded that it was not in Parliament’s interest to escalate the matter further. He instructed that his earlier tweets on the allegations be deleted.
“While the issues had been raised as a matter of principle and for the need to contribute meaningfully to this government… it is apparent to mention that proof beyond reasonable doubt under the circumstances would be impossible, making such a publication defamatory on the part of Mr George Guvamatanga,” Mutodi said. “I therefore wish to issue an apology, unreservedly, to Mr George Guvamatanga for the reputational damage the tweets may have caused.”
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The apology marks a dramatic climbdown after Mutodi alleged in Parliament that Guvamatanga demanded a 5–10% cut on every Treasury payment, a scheme he claimed had netted the senior official more than US$1 billion, making him the “richest civil servant” in Zimbabwe.
Mutodi alleged that ministries, departments and contractors unwilling to pay the kickbacks had their funds withheld for months. He cited the case of road contractor Bitumen, which he claimed was forced to pay US$200,000 for every US$2 million disbursed weekly. Parliament itself, he said, had been starved of resources for six months due to the alleged scheme.
The explosive allegations were swiftly rejected by ZANU-PF’s Deputy Secretary for National Security, Tendai Chirau, who dismissed them as unsubstantiated
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