Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) executives Stephen Matute (46), Givemore Tendai Kufa (34) and Precious Murove (44) appeared before Harare provincial magistrate, Josephine Sande charged with criminal abuse of office after they fraudulently transferred more than $2,1 million into two bogus company accounts. They were remanded to August 8 on $200 bail each.
The court heard that sometime in 2011, Zinara was given a loan of $206 million by the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) for the construction and rehabilitation of the 823km-long Plumtree-Mutare Highway. NMB Bank was nominated by DBSA to facilitate the loan repayment on a quarterly basis and all revenue in hard currency collected from Zinara’s operation was given to NMB Bank which would remit to DBSA.
From May 3 to 23 this year, Matute, Kufa, Murove, Taranhike and Matengabadza, allegedly sourced foreign currency from the parallel market through Access Finance (Pvt) Ltd and Grayriver (Pvt) Ltd directors, after paying them a total of $2,94 million stating that the payment was a reimbursement to DBSA on behalf of Zinara’s part payment of loan obligation with DBSA.
More: NewsDay
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