A ZIMBABWE Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) officer has been sentenced to four years imprisonment following his conviction on two counts of corruption.
Anyway Ndalema (32), a ZIMRA seals officer at Chirundu One Stop Border Post, was facing criminal abuse of office and bribery charges when he appeared before Karoi Magistrate Moreblessing Makati, who conditionally suspended one year of the jail term.
Ndalema will serve an effective three years behind bars.
District public prosecutor, Reginald Chavora had earlier pleaded with the court to pass a harsh sentence on Ndalema as corruption had become cancerous and should be viewed with abhorrence.
"Corruption is a dangerous and insidious evil in any country depriving it of good, fair and orderly administration," Chavora submitted.
The State case was that on February 11, 2022, Abraham Mutakwa was driving a Freightliner horse towing a tanker which, according to ZIMRA bill of entry number 54361, was loaded with 39 600 litres of diesel from Beira, Mozambique en route to Lusaka, Zambia.
On the same date at around 1430 hours, Mutakwa contacted the accused person on his mobile phone and asked if he could facilitate passage of his truck since it was now loaded with water instead of fuel.
Ndalema demanded and was given US$2 100 to facilitate passage of the vehicle without it being subjected to physical examination.
The accused person who was not on duty instructed the trucker to proceed to the Zambian side acquittal desk without a physical examination of his vehicle but was unluckily referred back to have it inspected.
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Mutakwa then parked the Freightliner at ZIMRA bay.
Court heard that from then on Ndalema became evasive forcing Mutakwa to spend days at the border.
The two coincidentally bumped into each other at Off-road Shop at Chirundu, where Ndalema further demanded and was given US$500 saying he had sorted all glitches preventing easy passage of Mutakwa's truck.
Ndalema, who was now on duty, instructed Mutakwa to proceed, but his luck ran out again when he was intercepted by another ZIMRA official who insisted on having the vehicle inspected.
The truck was examined and discovered it was loaded with water instead of diesel, leading to the driver's arrest.
Upon interrogation at Chirundu Police Station, Mutakwa disclosed he had given Ndalema US$2 600 to facilitate passage of the truck without going through a physical examination.
Police stormed Ndalema's house where US$1 900 of the bribe money was recovered, leading to his arrest.
