The Minister of State in Vice President Kembo Mohadi`s
Office, Davis Marapira has been reported to Police for allegedly defrauding a
Chiredzi businessman of R1, 4 million.
Chiredzi Businessman Lawrence Mahakwa filed a fraud case at
Chiredzi Police Station alleging that Marapira duped him of RTGS Dollars
equivalent to R1,4m after promising to source the foreign currency from the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
Efforts to get an official comment from the Police were
fruitless.
Marapira denied any wrong doing when The Mirror reached him
for a comment. He said he entered into a business deal with Mahakwa to procure
trucks from South Africa and the deal failed. He said the issue does not have
anything to do with abuse of power since their application for the hard
currency was not approved by RBZ and his differences with Mahakwa started when
he demanded repayment in foreign currency.
Sources at Chiredzi Police Station confirmed that the case
had been filed under CR53/09/19. Other sources said the minister tried to have
the case moved to Harare but failed after superiors in the Police maintained
that Marapira who is also Masvingo North MP should answer his charges in
Chiredzi.
Mahakwa confirmed that he made a Police after filling
summons against the Minister at The High Court in Harare last week. He said he
made a transfer of $70000 to Marapira`s Masvingo CBZ branch account number
20646910066 on October 31 2018 since he had promised to source the equivalency
in Rands from RBZ using his connections including the Governor of the bank John
Mangudya.
Mahakwa who is the director of Lyonais Investments which
owns a fleet of haulage trucks and a filling station in Chiredzi wanted to
procure a fuel tanker from South Africa and the transfer was equivalent to
R1,4m and a proforma invoice for the procurement of the truck was issued under
Marapira`s name but up to now nothing has materialized leading him to file the
Police report.
“That was purely a
business deal which has nothing to do with many things. We both borrowed money
from CBZ towards the procurement of trucks but we failed to get the foreign
currency from RBZ. He is demanding repayment in hard cash but what I know is
that he transferred money into my account in local currency and I also don’t
think that there is any criminal activity there” said Marapira. Masvingo Mirror
0 comments:
Post a Comment