A Grain Marketing Board supply chain manager has been jailed for abusing his office in a fertiliser scam that prejudiced the parastatal of thousands of dollars.
Obert Safuli Zhoya, 58, who was stationed at the GMB Aspindale Depot, was convicted by the Harare Magistrates’ Court of criminal abuse of duty.
He was sentenced to 24 months in prison, with 12 months suspended on condition of good behaviour, leaving him to serve an effective one-year jail term.
The court heard that in May this year, Zhoya devised a scheme to sell 599 bags of Compound D Superfertiliser that had been transferred from the GMB Sadza Depot to the GMB Mt Hampden Depot for grain-for-fertiliser swap arrangements with farmers.
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He engaged Madamara Investments (Pvt) Ltd and sold the fertiliser for just US$600 — or US$1 per 50kg bag — instead of its actual value of US$19,168.
Zhoya then directed GMB clerks to raise a false receipt and deposit the money into the GMB account to make the transaction appear legitimate. The scam was exposed after Mt Hampden Depot officials verified the stock and discovered that the fertiliser was in good condition and had no disposal certificates.
Further investigations confirmed that the fertiliser had never been written off and was strictly meant for farmer swap programmes.
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