A 32-year-old Harare man who allegedly tried to sell three vehicles valued at $25 000 to the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) was arrested when it was discovered he was not the owner of the vehicles after he had already received payment.
Senior Reporter
Tendai Washington Nyamajiwa appeared before Harare magistrate Don Ndirowei yesterday facing fraud charges under the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act and was remanded to January 10, 2012 on $300 bail.
Prosecutor Tungamirai Chakurira told the court that Nyamajiwa, who owns an unregistered car sales business called Millennium Motors, was tasked by to provide three Toyota Bubble manual vehicles following approval by the UDC board in September 2012.
UDC is a business consultancy arm of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development.
After the board had recommended that the three vehicles be purchased from Nyamajiwa, Tafadzwa Mukome invited him to her office and indicated UDC’s desire to purchase the vehicles. After the accused confirmed he was the owner of the car sale, they negotiated the prices and settled for $9 100 per vehicle.
After one of the vehicles was taken to the Automobile Association of Zimbabwe for inspection, $25 000 was deposited into the accused person’s account on October 22 and he was asked to deliver the vehicles.
The accused person later claimed the money had been stolen and said the vehicles in question did not belong to him. A report was made to the police, leading to his arrest.
