Trio jailed over abuse of car import facility

The pair was accused of murdering Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services officer, Tapiwa Mutyasira (29), whose body was dumped along the Mutare-Harare railway line, where it was crushed into pieces by a goods train

Thupeyo Muleya-Beitbridge Bureau

Three men from Beitbridge have been jailed for an effective 15 months each for smuggling an Isuzu D-Max into the country from South Africa after abusing the Temporary Import Facility.

Under the country’s customs laws, a visitor to Zimbabwe bringing in a foreign-registered private vehicle may be issued with a Temporary Import Permit (TIP) by ZIMRA upon entry into Zimbabwe.

A visitor is any person who is not resident in Zimbabwe, but travels to Zimbabwe for a specified period from their arrival. This includes Zimbabweans working or living in other countries with valid residence or work permits for the respective countries.

In their case, Tumelo Moyo (24), Vusa Mbedzi (39) and Edson Muleya (43) used a South African passport to import the vehicle into the country under the TIP facility.

The trio was convicted after a full trial at the Beitbridge Magistrates Court.

In a statement on Friday, the National Prosecuting Authority of Zimbabwe (NPAZ) said the vehicle had been forfeited to the State as part of the sentence.

“The trio smuggled a South African-registered Isuzu D-Max motor vehicle into Zimbabwe without paying import duty. Using a South African passport, they fraudulently obtained a Temporary Import Permit (TIP) and tried to disguise the vehicle with stolen identity plates belonging to a different Isuzu model,” said the NPAZ.