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TWO men yesterday appeared in court facing 10 extortion counts after they allegedly solicited for money from various Government officials purporting to be ZACC officials.
Felix Rimaunga and Brian Nyazamba appeared before Harare magistrate, Stanford Mambanje, who remanded them in custody to today for bail considerations.
The first complainant is Cassius Gambinga.
The court heard that on November 15 2019, the duo, purporting to be ZACC officials, called Gambinga, who is employed by IDBZ, and advised him that they were investigating several cases of corruption against him.
They allegedly demanded US$1400 from him, in order to close the corruption cases, and they directed him to transfer $5000 through EcoCash.
Gambinga approached ZACC offices and lodged a complaint of extortion against the two.
The second complainant is Douglas Chimba, the Chief Executive of Africawide Zimbabwe (Pvt) Limited.
The court heard that on April 22 this year, the two called Chiimba, again posing as ZACC Commissioner Zimunda, and advised him that ZACC was investigating him on several allegations of corruption.
They further stated that the docket against him was complete and awaiting to be referred to NPA for prosecution.
The duo then demanded a bribe of US$1000 from him to sweep the completed docket under the carpet.
Chiimba went to the ZACC offices to get the finer details of the alleged offence and he learnt that the commission didn’t have a Commissioner by that name.
He filed a police report.
The third complainant is Engineer Elias Mudzuri.
The court heard that they called him and advised him that ZACC was investigating him for murder.
They demanded a US$2000 bribe to save him from the wrath of prosecution.
When Mudzuri consulted his lawyer, he was advised to file a complaint against the two for extortion, which he did.
The fourth complainant is Dr Simba Makoni and they advised him that ZACC was investigating him on allegations of flouting the Exchange Control Regulations and that his docket was now complete and would soon be referred to NPA for prosecution.
They allegedly ordered him to deposit $1 million for them to cover up the story but, instead, he filed a police report leading to their arrest.
The duo also used the same modus operandi to extort NetOne CEO Raphael Mashanawani, Dr Guzha a city gynaecologist, Given Chibaya, the General Secretary of National Employment Council-Commerce, Nora Maideyi-Tome the Director Finance and Admin for Procurement Regulatory Authority (PRAZ) and Collen Rutsate, the Procurement Specialist for Procurement Regulatory Authority (PRAZ).
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter