Zimra Seized Biti's Books Over Customs Duty

The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) yesterday seized MDC-Alliance deputy chairman Tendai Biti’s books over his failure to pay import duties.

The book Democracy Works was co-authored with former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, Greg Mills of the Brenthurst Foundation and Jeffrey Herbst, the president of the American Jewish University. The books were seized at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport ahead of the book’s official launch at Sapes Trust resulting in delays of the proceedings. Soon after the launch, Biti acknowledged that the consignment of books had been confiscated over import duty. He said he offered to pay the duty but Zimra refused. Said Biti:

They just took our books. We had like 200 books which we intended to give our people, but they just took them and mind you this is the second time they just took them. They just gave the excuse (about) customs and we said we can pay the duty, they refused.

Zimra spokesperson Francis Chimanda requested for emailed questions, but he had not responded by the time The Herald went to print.

Related:

• Chamisa Condemns Seizure Of Biti’s Book By CIOs 

• CIO Seizes Biti’s Book He Co-Authored With 2 Former Presidents

• State Security Agents Seize Biti’s Book, Again – Report

More: Herald