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The two men smuggled the goods under the guise of clearing them into a bonded warehouse.
Admittance Kantshi Ndou (20) of House Number 2108 Dulibadzimu township and employed by Kuenhe & Nagel company and Nyasha Tatire (35) of 1710 low density suburb in the border town were not asked to plead to smuggling charges as defined in Section 182 of the Customs and Excise Act,
Chapter 23:02 when they appeared before Beitbridge provincial magistrate Mrs Auxilia Chiumburu on Tuesday.
They were remanded out of custody to 10 September for trial.
The prosecutor, Miss Marvelous Chikomo, said on an unknown date last year, Tatire was contracted by Metro Peech and Browne Wholesalers in Harare to facilitate customs clearance of goods imported from South Africa.
The goods included several boxes of snacks and potato crisps worth $60 771,57.
Tatire did not have a Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) customs bond to enable him to clear the goods, the court heard.
He then approached Elliot Shoko, who owns Framelight Agencies, a local clearing agency, so that he could clear the goods on his behalf. In an effort to convince Shoko, Tatire allegedly lied to him claiming that the goods were cleared in a bond, prompting Shoko to agree to the arrangement.
The court heard that on several occasions between 2 February and 12 April, Tatire teamed up with Ndou and they smuggled the goods.
Ndou wrote a bond letter for each of the 13 truckloads of the snacks that Tatire intended to clear.
The letter also confirmed that the consignment was cleared under Kuenhe & Nagel bonded warehouse at their head office in Harare.
In doing so, Ndou, however, did not inform his superiors about the transaction to cover up the smuggling.
The court heard that Shoko cleared the goods in the bond on the strength of the supporting documents from Kuenhe & Nagel written by Ndou.
On realising that the goods were not acquitted at Zimra, Shoko became suspicious and reported the matter to the police.
Investigations were carried out leading to the arrest of Tatire and Ndou.
They prejudiced the State of revenue amounting to a total of $60 771,57.
Online Reporter