Innscor manager up for theft

Tanaka Mrewa, Court Reporter
A SIMBISA banking manager for the southern region who is facing theft of more than $90 000 has denied the charge claiming that he was forced to sign an incriminating affidavit.

Simbisa is a subsidiary of Innscor Africa that runs the retailer’s fast food chain.

Trust Machaka (40) pleaded not guilty to theft.

His lawyer, Mr Byron Sengweni of Sengweni Legal Practice said two managers threatened Machaka with arrest and this compelled him to sign the affidavit.

“Your Worship my client’s duties do not allow him to handle cash. He is restricted to handling paperwork. On September 9 this year, he was called to Mr Tshuma’s (Human Resources Manager) office and was accused of stealing cash but he denied the allegations. He was threatened by Mr

Tshuma and Mr Lifa Ncube (Finance Manager) with arrest before being forced to admit to theft of $45 000,” said Mr Sengweni.

He said Machaka wrote the affidavit whose contents were dictated by Mr Ncube and Mr Tshuma.

“His six-year-old daughter could hear Mr Tshuma and Mr Ncube threatening him with arrest as she was at the office during the time the threats were being made. Had the accused person not been threatened he would not have admitted to the offence,” said the lawyer.

Testifying, Mr Ncube challenged Machaka’s denial of handling cash and he denied allegations of threatening Machaka with arrest.

“Sometimes his subordinates would not be at work so he is the one who collected cash from shops and banked it. There are banking documents that have his signature on them as evidence. His allegations that he was threatened are not true. We simply gave him two options, to admit to his offence or to face arrest. That was when he wrote his affidavit admitting the offence.”

Mr Ncube said he asked Machaka to reconcile his figures because he had admitted to embezzling different amounts of money.

“He admitted to taking $10 000 then $20 000 and $30 000. We didn’t intend to get him arrested. He brought a reconciliation that showed that $44 000 was missing. He brought an affidavit stating that he was prepared to pay back the money and that he was to surrender title deeds to two of his properties as surety,” said Ncube.

State allegations are that Machaka stole the money between July last year and July this year.

Prosecuting, Mr Jeremiah Mutsindikwa said: “Machaka would receive daily takings from Pizza Inn, Bakers Inn, Creamy Inn, Chicken Inn, Mr Baker, Steers and Nando’s. His responsibility was to deposit the money into the company’s account. Each month he would under-bank the amounts,” he said. — @tannytkay