Elima Fuels director accused of collusion with Zim...

Elima Fuels director accused of collusion with Zimra officers to evade duty

6,400+ Fuel Tanker Stock Photos, Pictures & Royalty-Free Images - iStock | Fuel tanker truck, Fuel tanker on road, Fuel tanker truck semi-truck

Michael Mashiri

Director of Elima Fuels, Eliel Madziwa, 32, has been arraigned to court accused of evading customs duty payment.

Madziwa of Flat number 8 Castill court, Corner Mazoe/Tongogara, Eastlea, appeared before magistrate Ethel Chichera accused of contravening the Customs and Excise Act or, alternatively, "Smuggling."

The complainant is the State represented by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority Forbes Border Post Shift manager Chaka Chaukura.

Elima Fuels Pvt Ltd, is a diesel importing and distributing company being represented by Eliel Madziwa.

The State, through prosecutor Grace Mugocheke, alleges that on August 21, 2023, Elima Fuels Pvt Ltd imported 40 000 litres of diesel from Mozambique and cleared its consignment through Forbes Border Post in Mutare.

All customs documents were processed at Forbes and the truck registration number AFJ 0833 with trailer registration number AFQ 6196 was presented to be destined for Lusaka, Zambia.

Since the consignment was said to be in-transit to Zambia there was no duty paid.

Along the way to Chirundu, the driver of the truck allegedly removed the master seal numbered AC014819 from the truck which was being tracked by ZIMRA electronic cargo tracker control room in Harare and placed it on some other unknown car which then proceeded to Chirundu Border Post.

All this was done in bid to avoid being detected by ZIMRA control rooms that were monitoring the tracker.

The fuel which the truck was carrying never reached Chirundu but rather was driven and parked at Elima Fuels service station in Waterfalls, Harare.

On August 22, 2023, a team from ZACC allegedly raided Elima Fuels at around 1300 hours in Waterfalls and managed to recover the truck with the fuel which was said to have been cleared in Chirundu.

In order to cover up for the illicit activity which had been done of smuggling fuel to Harare, Madzima allegedly lied to ZIMRA that the trucks had reached the border and had been cleared by ZIMRA Chirundu border officials yet in actual fact, the truck had already been under surveillance by ZACC officers at Elima Fuels service station in Waterfalls.

The investigations that were carried out by the ZACC team revealed that Madzima and Elima Fuels, together with the driver one Shelton Musekiwa who is still at large, connived with ZIMRA officials, Pain Mutema and Honest Chikorose who have already been charged and are stationed at Chirundu Border post.

The ZIMRA officials allegedly falsely recorded on the Bill of Entry numbered ZWFB S34599 of August 19, 2023 that the truck had passed through the border in transit to Zambia whilst in actual fact the truck had never reached the border.

Mutema allegedly lied that he had physically removed the master seal number AC014819 from the truck.

Chikorose who was at Desk 1 on the Zambian side then issued the road report number ZWCH/RR/4861/08/23 to this truck confirming that he had seen the truck physically.

Furthermore, an empty manifest for the truck was raised on August 24, when the truck had already been seized by ZACC and ZIMRA on August 22, 2021.

They allegedly did this in a bid to evade paying customs duty which was calculated by ZIMRA to be worth US$ 14351.40.

The State also alleges that on August 19, 2023, Elima Fuels imported 48 818 litres of unleaded petrol from Mozambique and cleared its consignment through Forbes Border Post in Mutare.

All customs documents were processed at Forbes and the truck registration number ADZ 8991 with trailer registration number AFJ 1684 was presented to be destined for Lusaka Zambia.

Since the consignment was said to be in-transit to Zambia there was no duty paid.

Along the way to Chirundu, the driver of the truck removed master seal numbered AC013964 from the truck which was tracked by ZIMRA electronic cargo tracker control room in Harare and placed it on some other unknown vehicle which then proceeded to Chirundu Border Post.

All this was done in bid to avoid being detected by ZIMRA control rooms that were monitoring the tracker.

The State alleges that, the accused persons carried out these illegal activities in a bid to evade paying customs duty which was calculated by ZIMRA to be worth US$14 645.40.

Madziwa who was coming from home will appear in court on November 9.