Police detectives
from Chivhu have arrested a Bulawayo man in connection with part of the $4
million worth of bitumen stolen from the Ministry of Transport and
Infrastructural Development depot in Chivhu in April this year.
The bitumen which was contained in 250 x 200litre drums was
for the multi-million dollar road widening project of the Harare – Beitbridge
Highway whose construction has virtually stopped because of serious shortage of
resources.
It has been established that a large consignment of the
stolen bitumen was allegedly bought by Lazarus Demo who used it to construct a
state of the art tennis court for international tourists in Msuna in Hwange.
Demo allegedly bought 85 drums of the bitumen from two unemployed men
identified as Armstrong Mpotegwa and Artwell Mahakwa in April.
Mahakwa who was arrested in Bulawayo on Sunday appeared
before Magistrate Sam Chitumwa at Chivhu on Tuesday and was remanded in custody
to August 9, 2019 while his accomplice, Mpotegwa is on the run, the court was
told.
Court documents show that the two suspects hired two trucks
from Bulawayo and 10 men for labour and they loaded 115 drums in the wee hours
of April 4 and disappeared.
Mahakwa denied the charges in court and said he only went
to Chivhu to get his money from Mpotegwa. The Ministry of Transport
administration clerk in Chivhu, Tendai Nyagwande is the complainant in the
case. The drums were delivered to Chivhu by Fossil-Contracting Company.
Thirty of the 115 drums were allegedly sold to Silvester
Murwira who was found with 30 drums at his Ipomea Enterprises in Morningside,
Bulawayo by the Police.
The court was told that the accused hired drivers, Tafadzwa
Koto (35) and Nkululeko Sibanda (40) and 10 unidentified men.
The accused directed the trucks to Transport offices in
Chivhu where they loaded the drums.
Acting on a tipoff, Chivhu CID tracked and interviewed the
drivers who led the Police to the places where they delivered the drums. The
buyers of the tar are the ones who then indicated the sellers of bitumen to the
Police and implicated the accused. Masvingo Mirror
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