THE driver of a South African trucking company, Prestige Carriers, contracted to transport boxes of bond coins into Zimbabwe, yesterday appeared at the Harare Magistrates’ Court charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act after he posted on social media an invoice and the amount of money he was carrying.
BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE
Tinashe Sikwila (32) was not asked to plead when he appeared before magistrate, Josephine Sande, who remanded him in custody to today for bail ruling.
It is the State’s case that on September 20 this year, Sikwila, whose company was contracted by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to ferry the money, was part of the escort team that ferried two trunks of Zimbabwean bond coins from South Africa.
The State alleges Sikwila was entrusted with providing maximum security to the money.
During the collection of the bond coins from South Africa Mint, where they were minted, Sikwila allegedly took a photograph of the invoice dated September 20 this year and sent it to a South African number owned by a Calisto.
On the same day, the invoice showing the amount of bond coins en-route to Zimbabwe was allegedly circulated on social media platforms, thereby, discrediting the security of the escort team and Zimbabwean government.
On September 21, RBZ officials met Sikwila and his escort team at Beitbridge Border Post, where they were alerted that the invoice accompanying the bond coins had been leaked on social media.
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Upon arrival in Harare, all the escorting members were ordered to open their WhatsApp messages in an effort to establish who could have leaked the security information and it was allegedly discovered that Sikwila had sent the document to Calisto on a South African number.
Sebastian Mutizirwa appeared for the State.
