ZACC probe: Another Mnangagwa ally in hot soup

NYASHADZASHE MAJONI |The ongoing anticorruption crusade by the Justice Loice Matanda Moyo-led Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) has sucked in former Mbizo constituency MP, Vongaishe Mupereri who is understood to have been involved in shady dealings with remanded ex-State House Director, Douglas Tapfuma.
According to information gathered by midlandsnews, Mupereri has already been summoned for questioning by ZACC in connection with reports that he could have used Tapfuma to acquire two ‘personal’ Toyota Hiace minibuses from South Africa while using government papers to evade duty.
The two Toyota Hiace minibuses became Mupereri’s electoral campaign signature in last year’s failed parliamentary bid, after he subsequently ‘donated’ them to Kwekwe city council as ambulances. The ambulances, it is alleged, were clandestinely procured using the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) allocation and have since been impounded by the The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA)
According to state papers seen by this publication, Tapfuma, who was on Tuesday denied bail and remanded in custody to August 15, is alleged to have assigned a one Bonani Ganyane to proceed to Beitbridge and ‘facilitate the clearance of the two vehicles on behalf of the department of State Residences using report order forms as if they were Government vehicles’.
After having cleared the vehicles, Ganyane was then said to have been ordered by Tapfuma to hand over the vehicles to Mupereri during his tenure as Mbizo MP.
“On 20 April, 2018, (Tapfuma) made an application to the Chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet requesting for duty-free certificates in the name of the President’s Department and they were issued”, the state alleges.
After having successfully applied for duty exemption for the two vehicles from Zimra, Tapfuma reportedly registered the vehicles at the central vehicle registry under the name of the President’s Department. The two vehicles were liable to a duty of $3 100.
When this publication sought Mupereri’s clarification on reports that the two ambulances he ‘donated’ to Mbizo were impounded, he first denied the allegations, saying in vernacular Shona:
“Hakuna izvozvo (there is absolutely nothing like that)”.
But when he was further quizzed on the matter, the former parliamentarian vaguely stated that the two ambulances ‘will soon be returned back’.
“Vakatora kuchecka. Pane zvavaive vachida kunotarisa and not kuimpounda because ari kudzoka, because hapana mhosva iripo. Vari kuadzosa (They just took them so that they check on something. They did not impound them because soon, they will be back. There is nothing criminal over those ambulances; they will be returned back)”, Mupereri said.
He also denied reports that he was summoned by Zacc for questioning in connection with the matter. Efforts by this publication to get a comment from ZACC could not materialize during the time of publishing.