Former Zipra commander and businessman Fred Mtandah has been arrested by the Anti-Corruption Commission on fraud charges.
Officials from the commission said the businessman, who is the chairman of pharmaceutical firm Caps Holdings and is the owner of FCM Motors — the sole agents of VW vehicles in Zimbabwe — was arrested on Saturday and is in custody facing six counts of fraud.
The fraud case was allegedly committed at the pharmaceutical company, but it was not immediately clear at the time of going to press yesterday who the complainant was or the amounts involved.
“He is expected in court tomorrow (today),” said an official.
Mtandah was an aide-de-camp of the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo and leads a rival war veterans’ faction as well as being the chairman of the American Businessman Association of Zimbabwe.
In 2008 Mtandah appeared in court on charges of resisting a government order to evict him from his farm.
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The farm was designated for resettlement under the land reform programme and was allocated to Andrew Maringa, a former senior official in the President’s Office.
Mariga later withdrew the case without giving reasons for his decision.
However, the matter has now been resuscitated and the State wants Mtandah jailed for refusing to vacate the farm.
The arrest comes at a time he is battling to save the farm which he bought in the 1990s.