Correspondent|The Privileges Committee which was appointed by Parliament’s Committee of Standing Rules and Orders to investigate allegations against Norton legislator Temba Mliswa and three other legislators of demanding a $400 000 bribe from a local businessman, James Ross Goddard of JRG Contracting (Pvt) Ltd, has begun today.

Chaired by Council of Chiefs president Fortune Charumbira, the committee met today to officially start the probing process.

Charumbira said that the committee met today to receive the formal complaint in writing from Goddard who has keen interest in mining coal in Hwange.

“We had our first meeting last Wednesday as the committee and we familiarised ourselves with the case.

“The allegations against Mliswa and others are so gross and we can only get to the bottom of the matter if we hear from both parties through a series of meetings.

“Today we are going to get a formal written complaint from Goddard and we will be summoning the accused to get to the bottom of the matter”, said Charumbira.

Mliswa who chaired the now dissolved Mines and Mining Development Portfolio Committee allegedly demanded $400 000 from Goddard as facilitation fee to enable the latter’s company secure a mining contract at Hwange.

Mliswa was implicated together with Leonard Chikomba of Zanu-PF, Anele Ndebele and Prince Sibanda both from MDC-Alliance.