Chronicle Editor
Whinsley Masara, Chronicle Reporter
FIVE men from Harare have been arrested by Binga police while allegedly attempting to smuggle 53 bales of an assorted consignment of goods from Zambia into Zimbabwe.
The bales contained goods such as clothes, sex-enhancing tablets, skin lighteners, shoes and a cough mixture popularly known as Bronco.
A number of trucks were waiting in the bush to transport the consignment to Harare.
Police swooped on the smugglers in the early hours of Thursday following a tip-off by villagers who had spotted them in the Sinamatele area.
A police source said the suspects were identified as Ephrage Mutsotso (23), Tawanda Chibanda (32), Blessing Kazingizi (18), Elvis Mafunhiya (28) and Godispower Munyengwa (47).
They were caught around 3AM.
“The smugglers used speed boats to transport their consignments from Zambia across the Zambezi River. The syndicate was ambushed and caught loading 53 bales into trucks which were ready to transport them to Harare. Their unnamed accomplices had returned to Zambia to collect more bales,” said the source.
In May, five municipal employees were arrested at the Victoria Falls Border Post for smuggling sweets and a cough mixture, Bronco, from Zambia, in a refuse truck.
The Bronco had an estimated street value of about $16 000, while the value of the sweets could not be ascertained.
The driver and four general workers were suspected to have connived with unnamed Zambians to load the truck with 99 boxes, each with 20 by 200ml bottles of the cough mixture and about 50 boxes of sweets.
The council workers, sources said, covered the contraband with garbage to avoid customs inspection.
Their plan blew up in their faces after Zimbabwe Revenue Authority officers searched the truck following a tip-off.
Last week the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) announced a 10 percent offer, on recovered tax, to whistleblowers for reporting smuggling or corruption.
The tax collector said it desperately needs partnerships with other stakeholders to fight rampant smuggling and corruption at the ports of entry and along the country’s borders.
Despite registering positives since the introduction of a cargo tracking system three months ago, Zimra said the borders, especially between Zimbabwe and Botswana and Mozambique, remained very porous.
The tax authority said it was struggling to control smuggling especially along the borders with Botswana and Mozambique where there is no physical barrier saying it is difficult for Zimra and other policing agents to monitor the borders.
Zimra said smuggling was killing the economy as goods are brought through undesignated points and where they don’t pay duty hence they are sold at low prices, thereby killing the local industry. —@winnie_masara.
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