adminThupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
TWO Malawian missionaries were yesterday fined $2,000 each for attempting to smuggle two vehicles worth 1,070 million Rands from South Africa to their home country through Zimbabwe.
Ahamad Edie, 37, of Machinjiri, Blantyre and Bender Mark Allen, 33, of Lumbasi in Lilongwe were arrested after using forged documents in an attempt to take the vehicles to Malawi.
Both were convicted on their own plea of guilty when they appeared before Beitbridge magistrate Godswill Mavenge.
They were each slapped with two months’ imprisonment with an option of a fine amounting to $2,000 each.
The magistrate also ruled that the vehicles should be released to their church, Malawi Church of Christ.
Prosecuting, Pernson Chekeya, told the court that in December 2012, the duo bought two Toyota land cruisers in South Africa on behalf of their church for importation to Malawi.
He said they obtained South African police clearance documents to export the cars on January 22 this year.
They then arrived at Beitbridge border post the following day where they connived to evade Zimbabwe’s customs laws.
Chekeya said the two made a false declaration to the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) that they were temporarily importing the cars to Blantyre.
They managed to get a Temporary Import Permit (TIP) and drove the vehicles out of the border post.
They were later intercepted by alert detectives in the border town.
The detectives requested to see their travel and customs documents resulting in the discovery of the crime and they were arrested.
Online Reporter