Zimpapers Logo

Harare Bureau
A HARARE couple had their wedding plans ruined and left $20,000 out of pocket after being conned by a soapie actor who claimed to be a wedding planner, a court heard. Studio 263 actor Tafadzwa Tandi, 31, lied to the couple that he had put together the much-publicised wedding of President Mugabe’s daughter, Bona, in March.

Tandi charged the lovers, who were not named in court, $1,000 to plan their wedding. Claiming to be an employee of Cresta Lodges Hotel, Tandi calculated the total wedding expenses to be $30,000, but the couple raised the budget further to $40,000.

Molyn Mutamangira-Mavhondo, leading the state charge at the Harare Magistrates’ Court yesterday, said Tandi, of Mabelreign in Harare, was handed $23,000 in cash by the couple and promised to submit receipts for all his expenditure planning the wedding.

Harare magistrate Elijah Makoma heard how Tandi, as part of the con, then submitted a list of payments he claimed to have made using a notepad bearing the letterhead of a company called Miracle Magic Wedding.

The payments included $4,000 for the venue, Pabani Lodge, the cake, décor, catering and stationery.
Acting on a hunch that something was wrong, the wedding couple went to Pabani Lodge where — to their horror — they discovered that only $2,000 had been paid towards the venue and just half the décor price of $2,500 had been settled. No payments for the cake and stationery had been made.

The couple, the court heard, called in the cops but just $3,000 of the $23,000 was recovered. Some of that money, it is alleged, Tandi returned through Ecocash.

He will stand trial on September 9 after his lawyer Michael Zvenyika asked for more time, saying he had just been engaged to prepare the actor’s defence.
Tandi, who also calls himself Hillary Indi, is out on $200 bail.