Online Reporter
Zvikomborero Parafini
Court Reporter
TWO Holiday Inn Mutare accounts executives have been found not guilty of defrauding their employer of nearly US$600 000.
The State conceded that the loss was due to the hotel’s own failing internal controls, not criminal acts by the accused.
Munetsi Makoni, an accounts supervisor, and Takura Ngatiyane, an accountant, were discharged by the Mutare Regional Court after a trial that exposed flaws in the hotel’s financial systems.
The prosecution alleged that from January 2022 to June 2023, the pair conspired with a third colleague, Gift Sauramba, to falsify accounting records and under-bank revenue.
Sauramba fled the country when the alleged fraud was discovered.
However, the State presented no evidence linking Makoni or Ngatiyane to the crime.
Instead, testimony from hotel staff and bank officials confirmed that Sauramba was the sole individual handling the banking process.
“The State will not oppose the application for discharge,” the prosecution told the court.
“The hotel’s banking system was too loose to such an extent that money was stolen using the porous system.”
The defence for Makoni argued that the case had “exposed the brazen weaknesses in the banking system of the complainant,” and that if money was stolen, it could have been taken by anyone within the flawed chain of command.
The presiding magistrate agreed, describing the State’s concession as proper given the evidence of the hotel’s systemic failures.
