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Yeukai Karengezeka, Court Correspondent
THREE more people have been arrested and charged with criminal abuse of office after they allegedly assisted four Cameroonians to illegally acquire Zimbabwean passports.
Tapiwanashe Hove, Sean Takunda Makuku, and Leona Patience Fungai appeared in court yesterday where prosecutor Ms Mercy Masamvi led evidence from investigating officer Christopher Lloyd Tarenyika who opposed bail. He said the accused were a flight risk and would interfere with ongoing investigations.
“From our investigations we discovered that the accused printed two sets of passports for the four Cameroonians.
“The first set was the one they were caught using at the border while according to the Registrar General’s records, the other set was yet to be collected. What is more worrying is that three of the passports yet to be collected are already missing from the offices and investigations are continuing,” he said.
Bail ruling is expected on Monday after cross examination by the investigating officer.
The Registrar General’s passports office in Harare, represented by Mr Francis Mhangwa, filed the complaint.
Hove, employed by the Ministry of Home Affairs as a processing officer at the Registrar General’s passports office, and Makuku, a quality production officer for a company subcontracted by the registrar’s office to print passports, were among those arrested.
According to the State, a person known as Jeff, who is still at large, approached Fungai and Tafadzwa Chiundiza, both now arrested, in August, seeking assistance in obtaining Zimbabwean documents – that is birth certificates, national identity cards, and passports for four Cameroonians: Christiana BøyembeDumba, Emile MuyaMuya, Marvel NgeiTegha, and Yvette KumNnam.
Fungai and Chiundiza allegedly demanded US$3 200 for the task.
The investigation revealed that Fungai, Chiundiza, and Tawanda Wanira, who was employed at the Registrar General’s office in Mount Darwin and is now also under arrest, conspired to obtain birth certificates for the Cameroonians.
Fungai sent the necessary documents to Wanira via WhatsApp and Wanira produced the birth certificates and national identity cards without the Cameroonians being physically present.
On September 17, 2024, Chiundiza, Jeff, and the Cameroonians visited the Registrar General’s office in Epworth, where they received assistance from Mike Kudzai Chikumbu, Titus Mutawa, and Roseline Tesa in obtaining national identity cards. These three have also been arrested.
Later that day, they went to the Registrar General’s passports office, Harare, where they colluded with Neria Sombi, Trymore Chipanga, Acid Asidi, and nine other employees to lodge passport applications. The 12 were subsequently arrested.
Fungai allegedly engaged Hove to expedite the passport production process, sending national identity numbers to Chiundiza via WhatsApp and promising US$140 for the task.
Chiundiza, who was also denied bail yesterday, manipulated the system to produce the passports within two days instead of seven.
On September 19, 2024, Makuku sent a text message to Hove, and they met at the intersection of Herbert Chitepo Avenue and Sixth Street, Harare, where Makuku handed over the passports to Hove, who then gave them to Fungai.
Fungai paid Makuku US$120 for his services.
The four Cameroonians were arrested at the Beitbridge border post on September 21, 2024, while attempting to travel to South Africa using the fraudulently acquired Zimbabwean passports. Immigration staff became suspicious when a group of people with indigenous Zimbabwean names could not speak a word of any indigenous Zimbabwean language and investigated further, unravelling the whole scam.
They remain in custody awaiting trial at the Harare Magistrates Court.
Online Reporter