Roads officials steal $21m tar drums

Court Reporter

Four officials from the Department of Roads in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development have appeared in court on allegations of stealing 901 drums of bitumen worth $21 million, which were held at Mazowe site in Mashonaland Central province.

Andrew Chitura, Allen Gutura, Simon Ndoro and Dalla Sibanda appeared at the Harare Magistrates Court charged with theft.

They were not asked to plead to the charges when they appeared before Mrs Yeukai Dzuda who remanded them out of custody to March 25 on $20 000 bail each.

Mashonaland Central Provincial Roads Engineer, Mr Joseph Makokova represented the Ministry in the matter.

It is the State’s case that sometime in October last year, the Department of Roads was holding 1 800×200 litre drums of bitumen tar at Mazowe-Glendale site along the Harare-Bindura Highway.

The four, who are supervisors in the Department of Roads, allegedly connived with nine other employees of the Ministry of Transport and hatched a plan to steal 901 drums of bitumen tar.

The nine appeared in court on February 26 and were freed on bail.

The court heard that investigations led to the recovery of 92 x 200 litres of bitumen tar.