daniel chigunwe
Leonard Ncube
Victoria Falls Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) has bust a corrupt syndicate of its officers based at Victoria Falls Border Post who were corruptly facilitating the importation of vehicles that are more than 10 years from date of manufacture.
Government banned the importation of vehicles that are more than 10 years old through Statutory Instrument 54 of 2024.
However, the trio of Phillip Kuvenga (28), Rangariraishe Zingwe (29) and Jean Felix Kadaro (30) who resided at UTC houses and were customs officers, would allegedly falsify documents to facilitate clearance of such vehicles in violation of the standing rules, thereby exposing possible massive corruption happening at the border.
The three facilitated the importation of several vehicles and would present falsified documents to their supervisor for approval before they would enter the correct documents on final documents after approval.
They even cleared a vehicle that had not even reached Zimbabwe, which led to the discovery of the offence.
The three have since been suspended and arrested for the crimes.
They appeared separately before Victoria Falls resident magistrate Mr Gift Manyika charged with criminal abuse of office as a public officer.
They were denied bail and remanded in custody to 17 February for start of trial.
Prosecutors said the offences were committed during the period extending from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024.
The accused allegedly unlawfully assisted in the importation of several vehicles each despite the cars being over 10 years from the date of manufacture knowing that the motor vehicles were banned in terms of S.I 54/2024.
The court was told that the accused, acting individually or in connivance, would receive documents either electronically or manually from clients to complete the valuation sheets, motor vehicle import register and carry out the valuation process.
The accused would endorse a different chassis number from the vehicle being imported before taking the forms and register to the supervisor for approval.
The reason for entering a different chassis number was to deceive the supervisor not to get the age of the vehicle when searching for it during valuation and approval.
After approval, the accused would then capture the correct information on the ASYCUDA World System and then alter details on the register or valuation sheet or completely replace the documents earlier submitted to the supervisor and attach them in the system.
The accused would allegedly release the vehicles without recording them in the release register or insuring registration of the vehicle as required by the station standing instructions.
The offence came to light when a vehicle which had not yet arrived in Zimbabwe was detected to have been already registered and a thorough check was done by Zimra leading to the arrest of the accused.
Mrs Portia Moyo prosecuted on the Kuvengwa and Zingwe case, while Ms Audrey Mukanganya prosecuted on Kadaro’s case.
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