Vendor Arrested for Alleged Bribery at Registrar G...

Vendor Arrested for Alleged Bribery at Registrar General Passport Office

Munyaradzi Mashiri

Zim Now Court Correspondent

A vendor allegedly selling clothes at the gate of the Registrar General Passport Office has been arraigned in court on charges of bribery.

Tafadzwa Chiundiza, 40, from Ruwa, appeared at the Harare Magistrates' Courts facing accusations of criminal abuse of office as a public officer and bribery. He was remanded in custody.

The complainant in this case is the Registrar General Passport Office in Harare.

According to the State, in August, a man named Jeff, who remains at large, approached Chiundiza with Leona Patience Fungai, who is also still at large, at the complainant's gate. Jeff requested assistance in obtaining Zimbabwean birth certificates, national identity cards, and passports for four Cameroonian nationals: Christiana Boyembe Dumba, Emle Muya Muya, Marvel Ngei Tegha, and Yvette Kum Nnam.

The court heard that Chiundiza demanded US$3,200 for the entire task. Allegedly, on August 27, he received US$1,000 via Western Union, which he withdrew the same day at Bank ABC, located at the corner of Leopard Takawira Street and Kwame Street in Harare. He also received the remaining balance in cash from Jeff.

From August 27 to September 4, 2024, Chiundiza allegedly collaborated with Leona Patience Fungai and Tawanda Wanira, an employee at the registrar's office in Mount Darwin, to obtain the birth certificates for the four Cameroonians. Fungai sent the particulars of the four nationals through WhatsApp to Wanira.

During this process, Fungai would send money to facilitate the production of the birth certificates and national identity cards via an Ecocash agent; the total amount sent to Wanira's Ecocash account is yet to be determined.

The court was informed that Wanira produced the birth certificates and national identity cards for the four Cameroonians in their absence. He subsequently sent the birth certificates by road transport to Chiundiza and Fungai, while withholding the national identity cards. Chiundiza and Fungai were instructed to visit the Registrar General's Office in Epworth, where they would be assisted by an individual named Mike Kudzai Chikumbu, whom Wanira had already engaged.

On September 17, Chiundiza, along with Jeff and the four Cameroonians, went to the Registrar General's Office in Epworth, where they met Kudzai Chikumbu. In collusion with Titus Mutawa and Roseline Tesa, Kudzai facilitated the issuance of national identity cards to the four Cameroonians.

Later that same afternoon, Chiundiza and Jeff escorted the Cameroonians to the Registrar General Passport Office in Harare. There, they allegedly conspired with cleaners Neria Sombi, Trymore Chipanga, and Acid Asidi, as well as nine other employees from the complainant's premises who have already been arrested and appeared in Harare Magistrates' Court, to obtain Zimbabwean passports for the four Cameroonian nationals.

Chiundiza and the three cleaners assisted the Cameroonians throughout the passport acquisition process, despite the nationals' inability to speak any local language or pronounce the surnames on their newly acquired Zimbabwean identity documents, as evidenced by closed-circuit television footage retrieved from the office.

On September 21, 2024, the four Cameroonians were arrested at the Beitbridge border post while attempting to travel to South Africa using fraudulently acquired Zimbabwean passports. Boyembe Dumba was issued a Zimbabwean passport numbered BE259642 under the name Christiana Mhereyenyoka, Muya Muya received passport number BE259641 as Emile Chingwaru, Ngei Tegha was issued BE251567 under the name Marvel Chimbwanda, and Kum Nnam received passport BE259643 as Yvette Maini.

Following their arrest, the Cameroonians were taken to Beitbridge Magistrate Court. Their detention prompted an investigation at the Registrar General Passport Office in Harare.

The registrar of passports, along with the security team, reviewed the CCTV footage from the day the passports were applied for and uncovered the offenses committed. They also retrieved the application forms submitted by the Cameroonians and identified discrepancies.

Consequently, the complainant filed a police report at ZRP Harare Central, leading to further investigations and ultimately the arrest of Chiundiza.