Man in Court for Luring Teen with Fake Job Offer

Munyaradzi Mashiri

Zim Now Court Correspondent

A man accused of deceiving an 18-year-old with a false job offer before kidnapping her has been brought before the court.

Simbarashe Shumba, 32, of Phase 4, Chegutu, appeared before magistrate Dennis Mangosi at the Harare Magistrates’ Courts, facing charges of kidnapping. He has been remanded in custody.

The State, represented by prosecutor Rufaro Chonzi, alleges that on October 13, at 1266 Parktown, Shumba misled the complainant, a young woman from Chegutu, by claiming that he owned a shop in Borrowdale and intended to hire her.

Shumba is accused of taking the complainant to Harare’s Parktown area in Waterfalls, where he falsely informed a local pastor, Ngonidzashe Gambiza, that the complainant was his wife.

The complainant, however, disclosed to Pastor Gambiza that she and Shumba were not related and that she had been tricked by him.

Further investigations revealed that Shumba had no shop and that the job offer was a fabrication.