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Thupeyo Muleya
THREE men arrested by police at Beitbridge border post last week while allegedly trying to smuggle 7kg of gold worth $270,000 to South Africa have been further remanded in custody to 17 September pending the outcome of the State’s appeal against their granting of bail by a lower court.
Simbarashe Kangara, of Warren Park 1 and Osten Chitate of Chisipite in Harare in Harare as well as Munyaradzi Tatenda, a resident of Bindura, were granted bail pending trial but the State led by Foster Abheki invoked section 121 of the Criminal Law, Reform and Codification Act.

The section states that a decision by a magistrate or judge shall be suspended in the event that the Attorney-General or his representative notifies the court of an intention to appeal against the granting of bail to suspects. It further states that when the section is invoked, suspects shall remain in custody for seven days pending the outcome of the State’s appeal.

Through their lawyers, Graciano Manyurureni of Manyurureni and Co legal Practitioners and Albert Nyamupfukudza of Nyamupfukudza and Legal Practitioners, the trio  denied the charges arguing that they were not aware that the Toyota Harrier they were travelling in had gold.

They argued that they had been authorised to travel in the same vehicle by Kudzanai Kangara who is on the run.The trio is accused of stashing 7.268kg of gold in a modified wiper compartment of the Toyota Harrier.

They were alleged to have intended to handover both the gold and the vehicle to an unidentified dealer in South Africa. The suspects’ bail application was opposed on the grounds that Chitate had given investigators a false residential address and that the vehicle was registered in the name of Carlson Mpofu not Kudzanai Kangara as alleged.

Abheki said there was a likelihood that the suspects would abscond and also interfere with state witnesses since Chitate lived at the same house with Kudzanai who is on the run.

The State alleges that on August 23, at around 6AM, the trio arrived at Beitbridge Border Post in a Toyota Harrier registration number ADJ3594 which was being driven by Simbarashe.

They went through all the immigration and customs formalities without declaring the gold. He alleged the three men were intercepted by police detectives from the Border Control Unit while they were about to leave for South Africa.

The vehicle was searched before they were told to drive to the main police station where further searches led to the discovery of eight smelted bars of gold bullion weighing 7.269kg which had been stashed in a wiper compartment specifically modified for that purpose.

The gold, their passports, vehicle documents and the vehicle were seized by police.