Border officials granted bail

Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
A senior Government official and a police officer deployed at Beitbridge Border Post who were arrested on Christmas Day over corruption charges by a Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) crack team, were yesterday released on $10 000 bail each.

Tafadzwa Musakanya, a supervisor at the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement, and Progress Laiza Tabarwa, a police officer, were arrested by Zacc officials jointly working with Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) loss control officers.

The two were allegedly caught red-handed demanding bribes from Zimbabweans returning from South Africa.
They were not asked to plead to charges of Criminal Abuse of Office when they appeared before Beitbridge resident magistrate, Mr Toyindepi Zhou who remanded them to January 28.

In addition, the duo was ordered to report once per month at ZRP Beitbridge Police Station until the matter is finalised.

Musakanya and Tabarwa had been in remand prison since their arrest on Christmas Day.

The accused persons are alleged to have committed the crime while in the company of two police officers who are on the run and have been identified as Constables Chokera and Msipa.

Prosecuting, Mr Ronald Mugwagwa told the court that on December 25, the duo was deployed to Beitbridge Border Post in the morning.

While there, the accused persons along with Chokera and Msipa allegedly demanded and collected bribes from returning residents so that they could speed up the border clearance processing.

Some of the victims later tipped the Zacc crack team which responded leading to the arrest of the accused, the court heard.

Musakanya was found in possession of R1 170 and US$20 while Tabarwa had R550.

Constables Chokera and Msipa ran away upon realising they had been busted and their whereabouts remain unknown.

The latest arrests bring to seven, the number of border officials who have been arrested for corruption at Beitbridge Border Post in the past four weeks.

Three Zimra officials were busted a few weeks ago for facilitating the smuggling of 176 000 litres of fuel worth nearly US$86 000 in import duty.

Another two were arrested for illegally releasing from the State warehouse impounded goods worth $6 million to their owners who had been penalised for violating customs laws.