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Lloyd Gumbo Senior Reporter
IN yet another case of a growing litany of indiscretions, Vice President Joice Mujuru is said to have abused the power of her office when she allegedly instructed Zimbabwe Revenue Authority top officials to facilitate the release of trucks carrying illegally imported chickens that were held at Beitbridge Border Post sometime this year, without paying duty.

Zimra is now demanding more than $4 million in outstanding tax from Harare businessman,Yaqub Dawson who sold the company to VP Mujuru’s nephew Preston Goredema,Christopher Hokonya and Charles Karimazondo in December last year.

Agreement of Sale documents seen by The Herald show that Dawson sold the company Dawson Enterprises (Pvt) Ltd to DCH Development Consultants (Pvt) Ltd owned by Goredema and Hokonya in December last year, while the tax evasion charges arise from products imported without duty between March 2014 and October 2014.

“Subject to the fulfilment by the purchaser of its obligations in terms of this agreement relating to payment of the purchase price and the provision of security, the effective date of this agreement shall be 1st of January 2014,” reads part of the Memorandum of Agreement.

Dawson confirmed to our Harare Bureau yesterday that Zimra want him to pay duty for imports that he did not make as he no longer owned the company that made the illegal imports.

“We sold the company to Goredema, Hokonya and Karimazondo in December last year although they haven’t paid us the purchase price,” said Dawson.

“We’ve signed two payment agreements, the first one in December 2013 but had to sign another one in June this year after they failed to pay for the purchase price so they’ve now promised to fulfil their obligation.

“Anything that happened after December 2013, I know nothing about it, so I was surprised when Zimra invited me with regards to the unpaid duty and VAT payments amounting to more than $4 million for trade that happened this year.

“I released documentation to Zimra explaining the position that I sold the company last year and have nothing to do with it. They’re yet to come up with a position on that.”

Dawson expressed ignorance about the relations between Messrs Goredema, Hokonya and Karimazondo.

Sources said there had not been change of ownership of the company because the new owners were yet to pay the $500 000 purchase price.

“Some trucks with chickens belonging to the new owners of the company were stuck at Beitbridge Border Post for about 21 days, with Zimra officials insisting that they pay duty, while they claimed that the chickens were a donation to Zimbabwe Defence Industries,” said one of the sources.

“(Gershom) Pasi was alerted of the problem and he phoned a senior official at Zimbabwe Defence Forces to inquire if the stock belonged to ZDF and the official expressed ignorance about the stock.

“This prompted Goredema to tell his aunt VP Mujuru about the bottleneck and she then phoned Pasi and instructed him to allow the stock to come in and the imported chickens were allowed in.

“But unbeknown to people was that Zimra still calculated duty and recently demanded that Dawson pays the unpaid duty.

“Dawson advised Zimra that he no longer had anything to do with Dawson Enterprises from January 2014, but it looks like Zimra is hesitant to charge the new owners because of the VP’s interests. So, Dawson is now the easy target”, said the source.

Another source said: “This was VP Mujuru’s project and that explains why Zimra allowed these chickens to come in without paying duty for several months. These people were selling their chickens at Koala Meats at $2.20 per kg which made it difficult for local farmers to compete with them.”