Felix Rimaunga
and Brian Nyazamba were sentenced to eight years in jail.
Four years were
suspended on condition that they don’t commit a similar offence in the next
five years.
A further
two-and-a-half years were suspended on condition of restitution to two of the
complainants and one-and-a-half years are effective.
The two were
convicted after a full trial. They were convicted by Harare regional magistrate
Taurai Manuwere.
Harare regional
prosecutor-in-charge, Gossy Mudambu, proved that the duo threatened their
targets with arrest and prosecution.
Rimaunga and
Nyazamba were said to have been working with Fortune Torima and Jacob Kuzinya,
who are still at large, according to the State.
Nyazamba was
responsible for profiling and submitting findings to Rimaunga and Torima, who
would then instruct Kuzinya to manufacture fake documents and open bank
accounts, according to the State.
Rimaunga and
Nyazamba called their victims, advising them that ZACC was investigating them
on allegations of corruption, and their dockets were nearing completion.
They demanded
US$2,000 from Mudzuri after falsely claiming that he was involved in a ‘murder’
case.
They also
demanded Z$1 million from Dr Makoni to “destroy dockets” which allegedly linked
him to some criminal activities.
They also
targeted NetOne CEO Raphael Mushanawani, and another CEO of a local company,
Douglas Chiimba, and a medical doctor Dr Guzha, whom they falsely claimed had
raped a patient at his private surgery in Harare.
Mudzuri was
approached by one of the convicts, who claimed he was Commissioner Hungwe from
ZACC, and he was investigating a ‘murder’ case, in which the ex-Harare mayor
was allegedly involved in.
He was told
that the docket was complete and would be referred to the NPA for prosecution.
He demanded
US$2,000 for him to close the docket at station level and to save him from
prosecution.
Mudzuri
consulted his lawyer, who advised him to approach ZACC offices and get clarity
on the allegations.
That is when he
was told that there was no Commissioner Hungwe at ZACC.
Dr Makoni was
contacted by one of the two convicts and was told that ZACC was investigating
him on allegations of flouting the Exchange Control Regulations and that his
docket was complete and was awaiting referral to the NPA for prosecution.
He demanded Z$1
million from him to close the docket at station level.
He asked Dr
Makoni to deposit the Z$1 million into a CBZ Bank account registered in the
name of Talent Murape.
Investigations
by police revealed that there was no Talent Murape registered with the
Registrar-General’s Office.
The CEO of
Africawide Zimbabwe Douglas Chiimba, was hit with a US$1,000 extortion claim
while Dr Guzha was also hit with a similar claim.
He was accused
of ‘raping’ a patient at his private surgery in Harare.
Mushanawani,
the Netone CEO, was called and the convicts said they wanted 10 percent of the
value of assets recovered from a NetOne cashier who was allegedly stealing from
the company.
They told
Mushanawani that he was involved and they threatened to take the matter to
social media if the deal did not sail through.
On May 21,
NetOne entered into a whistle-blower agreement with one of the four suspects
for him to get a 10 percent reward from the recovered assets.
The first
casualty, according to the State, was Cassius Gambinga who is employed by the
Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe, who was told that he was being
investigated on several cases of corruption.
One of them
passed himself as ZACC Commissioner Chimbwanda and demanded US$1,400 and
Z$5,000 for him to close the ‘corruption cases.’
Out of
suspicion, Gambinga approached ZACC offices to get full details of his
so-called corruption allegations and was told that they were not ZACC
employees.
City of Harare
district officer for Mufakose, Chiratidzo Dzama, was also targeted on February
4, 2021, by one of the two convicts.
He claimed that
he was Commissioner Gwangwadza from ZACC and indicated that he had received six
anonymous letters of corruption allegations levelled against her.
He claimed that
nine investigation officers were handling the cases, but indicated that senior
officers knew her and were willing to destroy the dockets on condition she paid
US$900 or transferred Z$90,000 via EcoCash. H Metro
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