A Harare truck driver who was recently arrested at
Beitbridge Border Post for smuggling 21 tonnes of salad cream worth R520 000
from South Africa was on Monday fined $1 000.
Obvious Muchazivepi (45) of Kuwadzana Phase 3 was convicted
on his own plea of guilty to contravening a section of the Customs and Excise
Act when he appeared before Beitbridge resident magistrate Mr Langton Mukwengi.
The accused risks imprisonment of six months if he fails to
pay the fine. Muchazivepi, who is employed by Hash Logistics of South Africa,
was intercepted by the Ferret Squad on February 14 at the last checkpoint when
he was about to leave for Harare.
Prosecuting, Mr Oswell Arufandi said the accused arrived at
Beitbridge Border Post driving a truck towing two trailers.
He then teamed up with a customs clearing agent, who is yet
to be identified, to smuggle the consignment of 2 400 cases of salad cream
using his passport and gate pass only.
Muchazivepi then went through immigration and customs
formalities without declaring his load, after which he drove to the last exit
gate en route to Harare.
The man, who was in the company of the customs clearing
agent, was then stopped for routine compliance checks by the Ferret Squad.
During the checks, Muchazivepi and his clearing agent
failed to produce relevant customs documents.
The trailers with registration numbers HP 05 VZ GP and HP
05 WH GP were then taken to the Container Depot for physical examination. The
customs agent took to flight during the physical examination.
Mr Arufandi said the truck and the consignment worth R520
638 were subsequently seized by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority under notice of
seizure numbers 021514L and 021515L respectively.
Muchazivepi was then arrested. Herald
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