The Ministry of Energy and Power Development in Zimbabwe allegedly overrode normal tender procedures to award the contract to become the sole aggregator of prepaid electricity tokens to ZESA division PowerTel. The State Procurement Board member said a tender for the role was cancelled in 2013 following a letter from the permanent secretary at the Ministry. It is alleged that PowerTel did not meet technical requirements but was awarded the role anyway in contravention of tender processes. The Ministry disputes that PowerTel should have been subject to procurement procedures.

1. By Tawanda Musarurwa
HARARE – The Ministry of
Energy and Power Devel-
opment allegedly overrode
normal tender procedures to
award ZESA division Power-
Tel the contract to become
the only authorized aggre-
gator for ZETDC prepaid
electricity tokens.
Appearing before the Parlia-
mentary Portfolio Committee
on Mines and Energy, State
Procurement Board (SPB)
board member Mr William
Kurebgaseka said following
earlier cancellations of the
same tender in 2012, a new
tender was floated in 2013,
which was however unilat-
erally cancelled following
intervention by the Ministry
of Energy and Power Devel-
opment through a letter
written by permanent secre-
tary Mr Patson Mbiriri.
"A new tender was adver-
News Update as @ 1530 hours, Wednesday 27 April 2016
Feedback: bh24admin@zimpapers.co.zwEmail: bh24feedback@zimpapers.co.zw
Energy Ministry in blatant disregard of tender procedures
Mr Patson Mbiriri

2. tised on the 13 September
2013 and closed on the 29th
of September. Subsequent
to the closing of the bids,
ZETDC wrote to the SPB
requesting cancellation of
the tender, the reason being
given that the adopted con-
cept of the third party vend-
ing tender was not in line
with Government's expecta-
tions and requirements.
"It was also said that the
few aggregators will have
bargaining power and might
in the future collude and
demand a higher commission
than justified. There is not
much value addition done
by the aggregators and the
model would be more effi-
cient if agents can directly
go through the ZETDC
"The SPB having consid-
ered the request from the
accounting officer, that is,
the ZETDC to cancel the
tender acceded to that and
the tender was cancelled in
December 2013," he said.
It is alleged that PowerTel
did not meet the technical
requirements to play the
role of aggregator for ZETDC
prepaid electricity tokens.
And due to its apparent
inadequacy, PowerTel then
went ahead - contravening
standard tender procedures -
by floating an informal ten-
der for seven days instead
of 30 days without prior
authority from the board.
The PowerTel tender (INF/
PWT/36/2013) sought com-
panies with expertise in pre-
paid electricity vending to
create distribution networks
that make use of various
technologies for the sale of
prepaid electricity tokens,
and it engaged a firm called
ESolutions.
The SPB having noted that
the accounting officer
floated an informal tender
with a short closing period
of seven days without
authority in contravention of
the procurement regulations
which require tenders to be
returnable within 30 days
unless a longer or shorter
closing period is granted
by the board, then resolved
- through PBR 1695C of
October 29, 2015 - that the
accounting officer should
pay $900 administration fees
in line with Statutory Instru-
ment 159 of October 12,
2012, for failure to follow
proper tender procedures.
Mr Mbiriri - in a letter dated
July 8, 2015 to Aura Group
which has been disputing the
irregular process, wrote:
"The Ministry disputes that
PowerTel's primary role and
mandate in providing an
aggregator service to ZETDC
should have been subjected
to procurement processes
and prodcedures.
"Accordingly, we would urge
the Aura Group to accept
this reality and not continue
flogging this issue."
. ●
2 news

3. BH243

4. BH24
TAA:DI251386-Y22
4

5. By Funny Hudzerema
HARARE -The Competition
and Tariff and Commission has
drafted a new competition policy
that will address issues of com-
petitiveness an official from the
Competition and Tariff Commis-
sion (CTC) has said.
CTC chairman Mr Dumisani
Sibanda said the new policy, to
be submitted to Cabinet soon,
will focus on trade, issues of
tenders and how local products
can be recognised on the interna-
tional market.
“The new policy will look and
monitor competitiveness and
regulate restrictive business
practices in the economy. The
draft is ready and what is left is
for it to be submitted to Cabinet,”
he said.
The new policy will replace the
current policy that was crafted in
1998, which the CTC feels does
no longer suit with the modern
technologies of competitiveness.
“The notable areas of weaknesses
include the definitions particu-
larly of mergers, enforcement
mechanisms, inclusion of later
developed mechanisms of burst-
ing cartels namely leniency pro-
grammes and more elaborative
coverage of various provisions.
“The revision of the law was
long overdue because things are
changing and the gap between
current law and international
best practice is now too wide,”
he said.
He added that in terms of com-
petitiveness Zimbabwe is still
ranked uncompetitive because of
a number of practices which the
country is not practicing.
The draft also addresses issues
such as the COMESA Competition
Authority which has so far not
dealt with cartels involving Zim-
babwe, notwithstanding the fact
that the establishment charter
provides for issues with cross
boarder effect.
Other issues to be addressed
include advocacy programmes
and activities aimed at publicising
the work and role of the enforce-
ment content and measures
for competition and consumer
protection in the economy to all
stakeholders.
Mr Sibanda added that the policy
will close the gap of coherence
between domestic and regional
competition policies and goals.
Competition policy is necessary
because it provides business
growth through competitive mar-
kets, the best means of ensuring
that the economy's resources are
put to their best use by encour-
aging enterprise efficiency and
widening choice.
The policy also contains some
enforcement mechanisms propos-
als to deter trade and profes-
sional associations from engaging
in restrictive practices.
It recognises the existence of
structural barriers in many sec-
tors of the economy that act as
impediments to business entry
and frustrate the small scale
businesses and Government’s
efforts in empowerment and
wealth creation.●
New Competition Policy draft complete
5 news

6. BH246

7. BH247

8. BH24 Reporter
HARARE- Tobacco farmers
have so far earned $65, 8
million from the sale of 24,
8 million kilogrammes of
virginia tobacco since the
tobacco selling season began
on March 30, an increase of
89 percent from the same
time last year, latest Tobacco
Industry and Marketing
Board (TIMB) statistics show.
The 24, 8 million kg of
tobacco were sold at both
the auction and contract
floors.
TIMB indicated that a total
of 5,4 million kg of tobacco
worth $11,6 million was sold
at the auction floors while
19;3 million kg worth $54,2
million was sold at the con-
tract floors.
Most tobacco farmers have
been opting for contract
farming due to high costs of
inputs.
The tobacco sold is 72,98
percent more than what was
sold during the comparable
period last year. A total of
14,3 million kg worth $39,4
million had been sold during
the same period last year.
Tobacco deliveries are
expected to decline by 20
percent due to the El Nino
induced drought which
affected the crop.
Meanwhile tobacco farmers
have raised concern over
the new payment system
saying they are being paid
late and the money is taking
time to reflect in their bank
accounts.
TIMB said the top price for
the contract floors was $5,60
per kg while at the auction
floors it was $4, 99 per kg.
The lowest price that has
been recorded so far is $0,10
per kg. A total of 76 bales
have so far been rejected
due to poor quality and poor
packaging this season, com-
pared to 79 bales rejected
the same period last year.
Currently a total of 11 630
bales of tobacco have been
rejected compared to 20 015
during the same period last
year.●
8 news
Tobacco farmers' earnings up 89pc to 65,8m

9. BH249

10. BH2410

11. BH24 Reporter
HARARE -Econet Wireless is
for the first time introducing
an airtime credit service via
the EcoCash platform which
will allow more than 5 million
customers to borrow airtime.
The innovation, also the
first of its kind in Zimba-
bwe, means that an Econet
customer can use EcoCash or
the EcoCash App to borrow
airtime in denominations
from 30c to 75c depending
on a customer’s historical
usage.
Explaining the service, Eco-
cash general manager Ms
Natalie Jabangwe said given
the recent cash shortages
being faced in Zimbabwe,
this service makes it possible
for EcoCash airtime sub-
scribers to quickly purchase
airtime in the case of an
emergency.
Repayments can always be
made from EcoCash airtime
purchases.
Customers will be required
to have an active line for
three months and a minimum
airtime balance of 5c at the
time they want to borrow air-
time. However, she stressed
that an EcoCash balance at
the time a customer wants
to borrow airtime is not a
requirement to benefit from
this service.
“All credit airtime advanced
attracts 10 percent service
fee which is payable within
seven days, on next airtime
recharge,” she said.
Econet Wireless CEO Mr
Douglas Mboweni said the
airtime credit service has
been introduced to assist its
customers who may some-
times be in urgent need of
airtime to make calls.
“Understanding our customer
behaviour and meeting their
needs allows us to introduce
trust based services that
deliver value and unparal-
leled convenience,” said Mr
Mboweni.
He said the Airtime Credit
Service on EcoCash pro-
vides a one-stop shop for
all mobile money services
Ecocash, EcoSure insurance,
EcoCash loans and now Eco-
Cash airtime credit service,
amongst others. Ecocash
channels provide greater and
improved customer experi-
ence and convenience.●
Econet extends credit facility EcoCash Mobile Money Service
11 news

12. BH2412

13. BH2413

14. HARARE -The Industrial
index continued in the pos-
itive today after gaining a
further 0.28 points to close
at 102.14 points.
The index was propped up
by gains in several coun-
ters with Innscor surg-
ing $0.0088 to 0,2188,
Delta advancing $0,0027 to
$0,6425 and Barclays rising
to $0,0287 after a $0,0017
gain. Other gains were in Old
Mutual which added $0,0006
to close at $2,2450.
On the downside Econet
came off $0,0050 to $0,2500
and Radar shed $0,0039 to
settle at $0,0161.
The Mining index was steady
at 20.16 points as Bindura,
Falgold, Hwange and RioZim
maintained previous price
levels at $0,0102, $0,0050,
$0,0300 and $0,1100 respec-
tively - BH24 Reporter ●
ZSE14
ZSE continues on positive trajectory

15. BH2415

16. Movers CHANGE Today Price USc SHAKERS Change TODAY Price USc
Barclays 6.29 2.87 Radar -19.50 1.61
Innscor 4.19 21.88 Econet -1.96 25.00
Delta 0.42 64.25
Old Mutual 0.02 224.50
Index Previous Today Move Change
Industrial 101.86 102.14 +0.28 points +0.27%
Mining 20.16 20.16 +0.00 points +0.00%
16 zse tables
ZSE
Indices
Stock Exchange
Previous
today

17. 17 DIARY OF EVENTS
The black arrow indicate level of load shedding across the country.
POWER GENERATION STATS
Gen Station
25 April 2016
Energy
(Megawatts)
Hwange 509 MW
Kariba 459 MW
Harare 30 MW
Munyati 18 MW
Bulawayo 22 MW
Imports 0 - 400 MW
Total 1494 MW
• 29 April - CBZ AGM; Place: Stewart Room. Meikles Premier
Hotel, Harare; Time: 15:00pm
• 05 May - Barclays Bank of Zimbabwe AGM; Place: Meikles Mirabelle Room; Time: 1500hrs• 18 May - ZB Building Society
AGM; Place: 21 Natal Road, Avondale, Harare; Time: 12:00hrs
• 18 May - The 76th AGM of Astra Industries Limited; Place: Auditorium at Astra Park, Corner Ridgeway North/Northend
Roads, Highlands, Harare; Time: 12:00hrs
• 19 May - The Fifth Annual General Meeting of Padenga Holdings Limited; Place: Royal Harare Golf Club, 5th Street exten-
sion, Harare; Time: 08.15am
• 19 May - NMBZ AGM; Place: Unity Court, Corner 1st Street Kwame Nkrumah Avenue; Time: 10:00am
• 19 May - Turnall Holdings AGM; Place: Jacaranda Room, Rainbow Towers; Time: 12:00
THE BH24 DIARY

18. CAPE TOWN - South African
power utility Eskom is not
under pressure to tap inter-
national markets to help fund
its 340 billion rand ($23,5
billion) five-year expansion
plan, its chief executive said
on Tuesday.
State-owned Eskom is build-
ing new plants and trans-
mission lines to augment
a power grid that nearly
collapsed in 2008 and was
forced to implement con-
trolled blackouts, or load
shedding, early last year that
dented economic growth.
"Our funding for last year
is complete and most of
the funding for this year
is done," Eskom CEO Brian
Molefe told reporters. "We
never issue less than bench-
mark which is anything
above $500 million, so it
can be $750 million or $1
billion."
He said the timing would
depend on market condi-
tions, adding that the suc-
cessful pricing of a 10-year
dollar bond by the National
Treasury in April was a good
sign.
Eskom is building three new
power plants and expects to
add 5 620 megawatts (MW)
to the network by 2018. -
Reuters.●
regioNAL News18
Eskom to spend $23,5 billion on new plants
Bob Diamond wants Barclays Africa back
Bob Diamond confirmed
months of speculation: after a
four-year enforced break, he
wants back into his old Afri-
can business -- with financial
firepower courtesy of Carlyle
Group LP.
The American-born finan-
cier said on a conference call
Tuesday that he and inves-
tors including US private-eq-
uity giant Carlyle are working
together on a potential bid for
Barclays Plc’s controlling stake
in its African business. Dia-
mond ran Barclays before his
2012 ouster during the Libor
scandal.
“The consortium has commit-
ted long-term strategic inves-
tors,” Diamond said on the call.
“The funding is in place. There
is support for this potential
transaction.”
Atlas Mara Ltd., the ven-
ture Diamond and Ugandan
entrepreneur Ashish Thakkar
formed to buy African banks,
said earlier Tuesday that the
two men’s firms were in talks
to potentially mount a bid for
Barclays Africa and combine
it with Atlas Mara. A combina-
tion with Barclays Africa Group
Ltd. would rapidly accelerate
Atlas Mara’s growth and give
Diamond, 64, control of oper-
ations he championed as the
chief executive officer of the
British lender.... - Bloomb-
erg●

19. Barclays Plc said profit fell
25 percent in the first quar-
ter as it posted a larger loss
in the division that holds
the businesses it no longer
wants, while revenue at the
investment bank fell less
than expected in turbulent
markets.
Reported pretax profit fell to
793 million pounds ($1,15
billion) from 1,6 billion
pounds a year ago, the
London-based bank said in
a filing Wednesday. Revenue
dropped 13 percent to 4,6
billion pounds, topping the
4,48-billion pound average
estimate of nine estimates
provided by the company.
“The performance of the core
today shows the potential
power of the group once it is
freed from the drag of non-
core,” chief executive Jes
Staley said in the statement.
“As these deals complete, we
are reducing risk-weighted
assets and, crucially, elim-
inating costs which have a
direct impact on our profit-
ability today and mask the
true performance of our
strong core business.”
Mr Staley has asked inves-
tors to endure short-term
pain so he can boost returns
by exiting some operations.
Barclays is looking to cut
risk weighted assets at the
bad bank, led by John Mahon
and Harry Harrison, to about
20 billion pounds by 2017.
The lender cut RWAs at the
unit by 3 billion pounds to 51
billion pounds in the quarter.
Trading Revenue
Revenue from the firm’s
markets business dropped 4
percent, as a jump in credit
trading offset declines in
equity- and macro-trading
units. Investment banking
fees fell 12 percent, and the
firm said income in April has
fallen from the first quarter.
Barclays had warned the first
quarter would feature lower
revenue from the investment
bank after a weak perfor-
mance in March. Still, those
declines were smaller than
drops at US rivals as deals
and trading ground to a halt
amid economic jitters.
“Good performance in a chal-
lenging environment,” Raul
Sinha, a JPMorgan Chase &
Co. analyst, wrote in a note
to clients. Profit and revenue
were above his estimates, he
said.
Mr Staley, 59, is trying to
convince investors of the
long-term benefits of the
maintaining the investment
bank, even after it gener-
ated lower annual returns
than Barclays’s consumer
and credit-card businesses.
The CEO has resisted calls to
spin off the unit, and instead
opted to cut the dividend
for two years and sell down
the bank’s stake in its Africa
business to boost capital.
The stock has fallen 21
percent this year, extend-
ing a two-year slump that’s
left the bank trading at
about half the book value of
its assets. Chairman John
McFarlane, 68, pledged in
July to double the share
price over the next three to
four years.
This is Barclays’s first results
after under a new structure
formed to comply with British
ringfencing rules requiring
the separation of consumer
and investment-banking
arms by 2019. The ring
fenced Barclays UK unit has
about 70 billion pounds of
risk-weighted assets, while
Barclays Corporate and
International has 195 billion
pounds, including the invest-
ment bank, most of wealth
management and the US and
international cards busi-
nesses. - Bloomberg●
internatioNAL News19
Barclays posts 25 pc drop in quarterly profit on bad bank loss

20. By Nigel Gambanga
Earlier this month the Min-
ister of ICT Supa Mandiwan-
zira gazetted new Quality of
Service (QoS) regulations for
the Zimbabwean telecommu-
nications sector.
For people who have been
following these develop-
ments, this is the same set
of draft regulations that
had POTRAZ, the telecoms
industry regulator seeking
input from Zimbabweans in
September last year.
Under the new regula-
tions, the performance of
all telecoms operators and
their delivery of service is
expected to meet a new set
of standards which will be
monitored by POTRAZ.
You can access the complete
regulations from POTRAZ,
and you can also access the
draft regulations that give
an outline of the framework
from the POTRAZ website.
This new QoS framework is
expected to bring in new
levels of accountability which
will protect consumers from
an unreliable performance
from all registered operators
while ensuring that certain
levels of service value are
delivered.
It won’t be empty talk only,
though. There are some pro-
visions for the enforcement
of the regulatory framework
20 analysis20 analysis
Zimbabweans to benefit from new telecoms service quality regulations

21. which have been included.
POTRAZ is empowered to
penalise operators that fail
to comply with the key per-
formance indicators or are
unable to resolve consumer
complaints within the resolu-
tion-time set by the regula-
tions.
What do the regulations
cover?
Some of the service quality
targets that have been set by
POTRAZ include the following
• for mobile voice telecom-
munication, the activation
of service has to be within 5
seconds
• operators have been given
an allowance of up to 1 hour
for service downtime in
mobile voice telecommuni-
cations
• a target of at least 95
percent has been set for the
call success rate (CSR) –
which refers to the number
of calls established over the
total number of mobile call
attempts to a valid number
• there’s a target of at least
80 percent for the Call Com-
pletion Rate (CCR) – which
is the percentage of calls
that have been success-
fully setup, maintained and
terminated normally by the
caller or receiver to the total
number of call attempts in a
specific time period.
• the audio voice quality of
mobile voice calls should be
deemed as being at least fair
• there is a 98 percent tar-
get has been set for SMS
delivery success
• for mobile broadband,
the data service availability
target- which is the ratio of
successful logging on and
attached to the network to
the total attempts – has
been set at 98 percent
• fixed data and internet
services have been given a
99,99 percent target for ser-
vice availability
• for fixed internet services,
when it comes to the down-
link throughput – which is
the speed with which data
can be transmitted from
a remote device to a local
device, there is a target of
at least 95 percent of speed
agreed with the user.
Some of the other parame-
ters that have been set are
for consumer care and these
apply to all service under
local telecommunications.
These include
• a target of 1 hour or less
for responding to a subscrib-
er’s failed attempts to check
the account balance
• a request for a PUK code
should be met within an hour
• a request for blocking a
reported lost or stolen SIM
card for which subscriber
ownership has been con-
firmed should be met within
30 minutes during working
hours
• the reflection of bill pay-
ments for a mobile account
should take less than 5 min-
utes and at most 10 minutes
for online payments after
there’s a receipt of payment
A look at these regulations
shows how Zimbabweans
stand to benefit from better
value provision from opera-
tors.
Issues like service quality
have received a measura-
ble value and customer care
which is largely disappoint-
ing from the host of service
providers in the country has
also been placed under the
spotlight, something that will
benefit from the weight of
the law.
However, for this to have the
intended impact POTRAZ will
have to make sure that the
market is fully educated on
how to raise complaints, fol-
low up on poor delivery and
share their worst experiences
with the relevant people. -
TechZim ●
21 analysis21 analysis