Zimbabwe’s Health Minister Obadiah Moyo has been arrested over corruption allegations related to procurement of medical equipment worth $60 million.
Moyo is accused of illegally awarding a multi-million-dollar contract for COVID-19 testing kits, drugs and personal protective equipment to a shadowy company.
He was arrested on Friday by police following investigations by journalists into his alleged action related to inflation of prices for the medical equipment.
The government canceled the contract after public uproar over the minister’s alleged action.
Moyo appeared in court on Saturday in the capital Harare but has now been released on a bail of $50,000.
#BREAKING Health Minister Obadiah Moyo freed on $50,000 bail. Prosecutors did not oppose bail pic.twitter.com/bPRKnhFSIu
— ZimLive (@zimlive) June 20, 2020
Meanwhile last a local representative of Drax International, the company supplying the equipment to the government, Delish Nguwaya was arrested over the same deal.
According to the charge sheet presented in court Nguwaya was accused of lying about the status of the company.
He had claimed that the company is a drugs manufacturing company based in Switzerland, “whereas it was merely a consulting company with no experience in the manufacture of drug and medical products.”
Zimbabwe has so far confirmed 479 cases of coronavirus with 63 recoveries and 4 deaths so far.
The country is not only dealing with the coronavirus pandemic but a worsening economic crisis which has made life unbearable for many.
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Source: Africafeeds.com
