admin
Mathew Masinge
A FOREX dealer who diverted US$ 30,000 which was meant to buy goods in South Africa to pay lobola for his wife, says he is failing to locate his key witness.
Rangarirai Shumbairerwa (28), who is on trial for theft of trust property made the claim before Harare magistrate Ethel Chichera.
The State said Shumbairerwa received the cash from the complainant, Tamai Dadirai who he has been in business with since 2022.
It is Shumbairerwa’s defence that he received the cash from Salisio Janyure who is Dadirai’s ex-husband.
However, Shumbairerwa has failed to locate Janyure who is also a high-ranked official in the Air Force of Zimbabwe.
After making the application for postponement, Shumbairerwa received a stern warning from the court for unnecessarily dragging his defence case.
The court queried how a witness would genuinely delay to testify in a case involving his own money amounting to US$30k.
The magistrate only agreed to postpone the matter to next Tuesday.
Failure of Shumbairerwa to bring Janyure to court will result in the court to closing the defence case.
It is the State’s case that sometime in October last year, Shumbairerwa received US$ 30,000 from Dadirai at Nyahokwe Mall in Harare CBD.
The money was meant to order goods, which included clothes and blankets, which would be sold in Dadirai’s shops at the mall.
However, the goods were not delivered.
In violation of a trust agreement between the two, Rangarirai did not do the intended electronic funds transfer to South Africa but used the money to throw a lavish traditional marriage ceremony.
Rangarirai pleaded with Dadirai and offered to pay back the money in instalments.
However, he failed to pay back the money in the past six months.
The two have been in the same business since 2022 and nothing has been recovered from the US$30 000 transaction.
Online Reporter