Nurse, workmate in court over fake rebate letter

Yeukai Karengezeka Court Correspondent

A nurse who is a sister in charge at Luke’s Mission Hospital in Bulawayo and her accomplice who is a driver, both employed by the Ministry of Health and Child Care have appeared in court for fraudulently using a fake rebate letter to import a vehicle into the country duty-free.

Dzingai Sibanda(46) and Samuel Gerald Doma(36) appeared before Harare regional magistrate Mr Stanford Mambanje charged with fraud.

They were granted US$50 bail each and will return to court on February 6.

The State alleged that sometime in March last year, Sibanda purchased a Nissan Advan vehicle from Qadeer N Brothers Trading CC in South Africa

Within the same month, she initiated the application for a rebate to import her vehicle duty-free under the Civil Servants Motor Vehicle Rebate Scheme.

Knowing very well that the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion had not authorised her to import the vehicle on rebate, she connived with Doma, who facilitated the processing of a fake rebate letter to import the vehicle.

Sibanda sent her details to Doma and paid him $50 for processing the fake rebate letter.

The court heard, Doma bypassed the official channel of making an application for a rebate through the ZIMRA email, and unlawfully generated a fake rebate letter in the name of Sibanda dated 13 March 2023, with reference number 09/28/3/833/23 and forwarded it to Sibanda.

Sibanda then took the fraudulent rebate letter and forwarded it to Dennis Keizi, his brother-in-law to facilitate the clearance of the vehicle at the Beitbridge border post.

Dennis Keizi engaged Getrude Chibaba an agent based in Beitbridge and forwarded her the vehicle importation documents as well as the fake rebate letter to clear the vehicle at the border.