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 TELECEL board member and businesswoman Jane Mutasa yesterday appeared at the magistrates’ court with two others facing nine counts of fraud involving the illegal sale of seed packs and recharge cards worth over US$750 000.
The trio was remanded in custody to March 19 after Harare magistrate Don Ndirowei ruled that they were not fit candidates for bail.
Mutasa (55), a shareholder at Telecel Zimbabwe, is accused alongside Charles Mapurisa (37), a former Telecel regional sales manager and her personal assistant at Oxygon Investments Caroline Gwinyai (25).
It is the state’s case that Mutasa connived with former Telecel commercial director, Naquib Omar who has since fled the country and is reportedly in Botswana to acquire stocks from Telecel Zimbabwe using her company, Oxygon Investments.
They used stolen manual invoice books with serial numbers 3251-3300, which were kept by Mapurisa.
This was against a company directive issued on July 15 last year that Telecel staffers should stop selling starter packs and recharge cards against manual invoices.
“The three accused, acting in connivance with Naquib Omar and in a bid to bypass the memorandum from[former Telecel managing director] Rex Chibesa mooted out a plan to defraud Telecel Zimbabwe by continuing to request stock from Telecel Zimbabwe using manual invoices which were not captured in the Telecel system,” said state prosecutor Tawanda Zvekare in his outline.
The three pleaded not guilty.
The matter only came to light after auditors were engaged to quantify a variance of $1,7 million which was discovered by the Telecel finance manager while preparing the company’s accounts for September.
Turning down Mutasa’s application for bail, Ndirowei said the businesswoman was likely to abscond if given bail and that the case against the three was very strong.
He said it was in the interest of justice to deny them bail.
The state’s evidence against the three is based on a “goods outwards security register” indicating purported credit purchases done through manual invoices.
Zvakare also said the State obtained oral evidence indicating that the purported credit was not posted to the computerised accounting system for proper record of the transaction.
There is oral evidence confirming delivery to Oxygon Investments, he said.
In convincing the court not to grant Mutasa bail, Zvekare called into the witness box superintendent Ndabezinhle Moyo, who heads CID Serious Frauds section and is also investigating officer in the case.
Moyo said an invoice book used in the alleged fraud is still missing and the police are still trying to recover it.
He said granting them bail would very likely compromise investigations.
Moyo said he had also been in touch with Omar through Gwinyai and he has indicated that Omar was in Botswana.
At first Omar was roaming on his local number, but he has been unreachable since 5PM on Friday.
The police first picked up the three for questioning on Thursday.
They were released on the same day but re-arrested on Friday.
As charges were being read against her, Mutasa constantly shook her head.
Mutasa and Gwinyai are being represented by Charles Chinyama of Chinyama and partners while Mapurisa is being represented by Ziwai Kamusasa of Kamusasa and Musenda Legal Practitioners.
After she was denied bail, unidentified members of Mutasa’s family tried to vent their anger on The Standard news crew.
One of Mutasa’s sons grabbed photographer Shepherd Tozvireva threatening to beat him up and destroy his camera.
The incident happened in front of prison guards escorting Mutasa and her lawyer Chinyama.
Tozvireva managed to escape from the scene but Mutasa’s son continued to advance towards this reporter threatening to assault her.
One of them threatened to “smoke out” and “shoot” this reporter after taking down her car’s registration number.
BY BERTHA SHOKO
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