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Thupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
DETECTIVES from the Border Control Unit have arrested four suspects for attempting to bribe a senior Zimra official with $1,000 to facilitate the smuggling of two truckloads of scrap metal into South Africa through Beitbridge Border Post.
The value and weight of the scrap metal is yet to be ascertained.

The quartet, Margret Mapfumo, 44, of Hatfield, Law Mukono, 30, Mufakose in Harare, Edgar Mapfumo, 25, of Kempton Park, Johannesburg in South Africa and Shingai Blessing Chikwava from Harare, were arrested at the border post on Friday evening.
Mukono works for Pineleen Logistics Zimbabwe while Mapfumo is employed by Tabeza Logistics South Africa.

The suspects appeared before magistrate Gloria Takundwa and were not asked to plead to charges of smuggling and bribery.

They were granted $200 bail each to July 22, ordered to surrender their travel documents to the clerk of court, to continue residing at their given addresses and not to interfere with witnesses as part of their bail conditions.

Prosecutor Foster Abheki said on July 3 at around 3PM, Mukono approached one Gibson Muvhunduse who is a manager at the Zimra scanner unit on the exit side seeking assistance to smuggle a load of scrap metal to South Africa.

He said Mukono promised to reward the manager with a bribe of $1,000 ensuring a free passage for the truck without the valid export documents.

Abheki said on the following day at around 9PM Mukono went to the border post in the company of one James Njiva, a truck driver and they approached Muvhunduse with the same issue and told him that they wanted to add another truck to their contraband.

He (Mukono) reiterated that he would pay a $1,000 bribe for both trucks.

The court further heard that Mukono handed over the fake export documents, two passports and $1,000 bribe money to Muvhunduse who had already alerted the police.

Mukono was subsequently arrested while Njiva ran away and is still at large.

Mukono then implicated Margret as the owner of the scrap metal and that he was acting under her orders.

Two gate passes for the trucks were in turn recovered from Mukono.

Further police investigations led to the arrest of Margret, Edgar and Shingai who were found connecting a horse to one of the trailers carrying scrap metal at a Truck Inn along the Beitbridge-Masvingo Road.

The two trucks and the scrap metal were then seized by Zimra.