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Yeukai Karengezeka Court Correspondent
A civil servant and her accomplice appeared in court for allegedly importing a vehicle using a fake rebate letter.
Tendai Tekesi (36) from Chitungwiza and Blandina Ratidza Madzima (44) a civil servant yesterday appeared before Harare regional Magistrate Mrs Marehwanazvo Gofa charged with fraud.
They were released on US$150 bail and the matter is expected to return to court on November 24.
It is the State’s case that sometime in October last year Madzima purchased through BE FORWARD a Nissan Advan motor vehicle.
She initiated the application for rebate to import her motor vehicle duty free under the civil servants’ motor vehicle rebate scheme.
Investigations conducted established that sometime in December 2022, Madzima then approached one Claudious Tandi and inquired if he knew anybody who could assist her to acquire a rebate since the Ministry of Finance was taking too long to approve of her application.
Tandi then requested Madzima’s documents and sent them to one Erick Jairos whom he knew for assisting in processing rebates.
Jairos then sent Madzima’s documents to Tekesi who, acting in connivance with the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) officials, then generated a fake rebate letter in the name of Madzima without a letter of authorisation from the Ministry of Finance.
Madzima then took the fraudulent rebate letter and produced it to Zimra officials in Beitbridge, misrepresenting that she had been authorised by the Ministry of Finance to import her motor vehicle duty free under the scheme.
As a result of the misrepresentation, Zimra suffered potential prejudice for the duty not paid which is yet to be quantified.
The vehicle has since been seized by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc).
Government introduced a civil servants’ motor vehicle rebate scheme in 2019 in which civil servants that have served for 10 years and above were allowed to import motor vehicles with values which fall within their employment grades without paying import duty.
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