Fananidzai Maramba (33), Takunda Nyambi (40) and Kudakwashe
Tinonetsana (33) were arrested when the Zimra anti-smuggling team intercepted
four tankers laden with fuel they had allegedly allowed to pass through the
border without paying duty,
The smuggling of fuel (especially petrol) falsely declared
as paraffin, bulk cooking oil or soya oil to evade paying import duty is now
common at the country’s busiest inland port prompting authorities to tighten
screws on the movement of commercial cargo.
A total of 13 tankers have been intercepted at the border
post during the past six weeks.
Maramba, Nyambi and Tinonetsana were arrested on December 7
at around 8PM.
The freight forwarder they had connived with, Tichaona
Moyo, fled when he realised they had been busted and is still at large.
The trio was not asked to plead to charges of criminal
abuse of office when they appeared before Beitbridge Resident Magistrate, Mr
Toyindepi Zhou yesterday. They were all remanded to January 17 on $15 000 bail
each.
The State led by Mr Ronald Mugwagwa alleges that on
December 7 at around 2PM, the trio reported for duty on the imports commercial
section.
Maramba and Nyambi were deployed to the commercial imports
scan point while Tinonetsana was stationed at the last man where trucks are
checked for compliance before exiting the border.
The court further heard that among other duties, the
accused persons receive customs imports documents including Bills of Entries on
all commercial cargo and verify their authenticity in the Zimra online
clearance system.
However, at around 7PM, four Bakers Tankers carrying
unleaded petrol arrived from South Africa being cleared by Moyo.
The accused persons are alleged to have hatched a plan to
facilitate the importation of the fuel using fake customs documents.
Mr Mugwagwa alleges that when Moyo handed over the fake
documents to Maramba and Nyambi at the scanning, they processed them manually
instead of using the online facility as required.
Moyo again tendered the documents to Tinonetsana who
allegedly used the same method to give the tankers the green light to leave the
border.
The State alleges the tankers were intercepted by alert
members of the Zimra anti-smuggling unit while about to leave the border post.
The documents were then verified online and it was proved
that they were fake, further investigations also revealed that the trio had not
used the online method to process fuel clearance.
A report was then made to the police leading to their
arrest and seizure of the tankers and fuel. Each tanker was carrying an average
of 40 000 litres worth over US$20 000 in import duty. Chronicle
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