daniel chigunwe
THE number of foreign nationals, who managed to fraudulently acquire Zimbabwean identity documents, including passports, continues to rise as many of them are brought before our courts.
The latest is Zakia Abdul Ahmed, a Ghanaian, who was arrested at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport over the weekend.
Her case comes at a time focus has been on four Cameroonians who also duped the system and obtained local documents to fraudulently change their names.
Ahmed is being accused of fraud and violating the Immigration Act.
The State, represented by Rufaro Chonzi, alleged that Ahmed entered Zimbabwe by evasion and remained in the country, without a valid permit authorising her to stay here.
It is alleged that Ahmed went on to obtain Zimbabwean identity documents to regularise her stay in this country.
On September 17, 2018, Ahmed, in connivance with Lyner Mufanachiya who is at large, went to Mutoko Registry Offices where they supplied false information to the Civil Registry Office that Ahmed was a Zimbabwean national.
Ahmed went by the name Takudzwa Zakia Mufanachiya.
They claimed she was born on May 15, 2000, in Chimuti Village, Chief Chimoyo, Mutoko, and her mother is Lyner Mufanachiya, who was born in Mudzi. Due to this misrepresentation, Ahmed was issued with a Zimbabwean birth certificate number MTK-01645-18.
Using the fraudulently acquired birth certificate, Ahmed went on to obtain a Zimbabwean national identity card. On January 29, this year, Ahmed was issued with a Zimbabwean passport.
Last week, it was revealed that the Cameroonian quartet, which was issued with Zimbabwean passports, sent US$3200 to the Zimbabwean man who was facilitating the fraud while they were still holed up in their country.
The money was sent through Western Union.
Duma Ebako Christiana Boyombe 39, Yvette Kum Nnam 24, Marvel Ngei Tegha 28 and Emile Muya Muya 23 were not asked to plead when they appeared before regional magistrate Fadzai Mthombeni.
This is quite disturbing because it shows us that a number of our officials have been corrupted and this has now created an environment where these crooked foreigners can come and abuse our systems to get local documents.
The Cameroonians were arrested while they were on their way to South Africa. If they had managed to get into South Africa and, let’s say, committed crime there, the tale would be about Zimbabweans committing crime in that country.
It would be the good name of our country which would be soiled by the criminal acts of these people who would be masquerading as Zimbabweans.
We believe this is just the tip of the iceberg.
We are told by our sources that many foreigners, who run shops in the Gulf area of the capital, have Zimbabwean IDs and passports.
We urge our authorities to go on the offensive on this one and ensure that those who have been corrupting our systems are brought to book.
We should focus on our own officers, who are ensuring that these foreigners are able to beat our systems.
Online Reporter