TWO Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) officials have been arraigned before the Harare Magistrates’ Courts with five others including a director from a private voluntary organisation (PVO) after they allegedly smuggled 17 tonnes of T-shirts.
Zimra officials Brian Simbachako and Alford Choruvanda appeared in court together with Jeed Investments director Jethro Mavangwa and Rufaro Nenyasha from the PVO.
Clearing agent Norest Marara and Tony Chisuse, a truck driver also appeared is court. Regional magistrate Marehwanazvo Gofa remanded them to tomorrow for bail ruling.
The complainant is represented by Yulita Toma in her capacity as Zimra revenue supervisor.
Allegations are that sometime in October last year, Mavangwa imported 1 066 cartons of cotton T-shirts from Fin-Agri-Hoiding d.o.o of Slovenia weighing 17 573 kilogrammes.
On October 31, the said consignment was loaded into a container belonging to CMA CGM, a shipping company, and sealed at Port Koper in Slovenia for transportation to Beira in Mozambique and finally, Manica Warehouse in Harare.
A waybill or bill of lading was reportedly issued to Mavangwa who was both the consignee and the notifying party to the consignment.
lt is alleged that on February 13 this year, the consignment arrived at Beira and on March 4, Mavangwa approached CMA CGM in Harare and requested an amendment to the bill of lading on consignee details.
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He allegedly notified party section changes from Jeed Investments to Rufaro Nenyasha.
Mavangwa was ordered to surrender the original bill of landing at CMA CGM in Harare.
The accused persons, working in common purpose and with the intention to evade paying import duty for the said consignment, allegedly created a fake waybill with China Drip Irigation Equipment (Xiamen) Co Ltd.
They also indicated the port of loading as Xiamen in China and the description of the consignment as drip irrigation equipment for agricultural purposes.
The consignment was transported by National Railways of Zimbabwe from Beira and arrived at Manica warehouse in Harare on March 23, 2025 but the seal number used to seal the container at Port Koper in Slovenia was not tampered with.
lt is alleged that on April 17, Marara sub-contracted Best Gadzikwa Mawonera, a clearing agent at Dawn Shipping (Pvt) Ltd to clear the consignment with Zimra.
Marara allegedly gave Mawonera the fake bill of landing and invoices describing the consignment as drip irrigation equipment instead of T-shirts.
On April 23 this year, Mawonera without suspecting that the import documents he was given by Marara were doctored, processed Zimra clearance declaring that the consignment was drip irrigation equipment hence no import duty was paid.
It is further alleged that two days later, Mawonera applied for physical examination of the consignment.
Simbachako and Noruvanda were supposed to conduct physical examination to ascertain whether the goods declared on the importation documents conform with the actual goods in the container.
They were also expected to determine tariff and values involved but working in common purpose with their co-accused persons they allegedly cleared the consignment without carrying out the physical examination.
After the accused persons cleared the consignment, it was then loaded into Chisuse’s truck and was taken to Bramfield Farm in Nyabira where the accused persons offloaded the consignment without paying import duty or value added tax (VAT) for the said consignment.
The consignment was supposed to pay US$78 880,35 or ZWG2 167 608,35 for import duty and VAT had it been declared properly.
