Bulawayo car dealer, Tendai Kanyonganise, has been locked up on allegations of smuggling a motor vehicle from South Africa.
Kanyonganise, who runs MR TIKAYS Car Sales, is alleged to have smuggled a Toyota Hiace minibus from South Africa in contravention of the country’s import regulations.
Kanyonganise denied the charge when he appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Gideon Ruvetsa on Friday.
The magistrate remanded him in custody to July 7 for continuation of trial.
It is the State case that last month, James Zulu of Romney Park in Bulawayo visited Bulawayo police Criminal Investigations Department to clear the vehicle, a Toyota Hiace registration number ABR 2394 chassis number –KZH 100-0015950 engine number –IKZ TE 015965, after it was sold to him. The kombi was initially registered in Kanyonganise’s name.
Police physically checked the vehicle and its registration details against the registry data base held at the police station.
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They became suspicious after realising that the vehicle’s registration numbers, ABR 2394, were not appearing on their data base .
The registration book showed that the vehicle was once registered on number 538-466 N and the database revealed that the number belonged to BMW chassis number NBAHB 2200033 27001 engine number 25774379 which belonged to Chikomo Joseph of Goromonzi.
Zulu told police Kanyonganise was the original owner of the vehicle.
Police later discovered the vehcile’s details were not reflecting on the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority database, raising suspicion it could have been smuggled into the country.
Investigations established Kanyonganise travelled to South Africa twice between August 16 and 17 last year, but did not declare the imported vehicle.
On August 18, he fraudulently registered the vehicle at the Zimpost office in Bulawayo purporting to be changing its registration number from 538-466 N to ABR 2394 which he fitted on the vehicle before handing it over to Zulu.
Investigations led to the arrest of Kanyonganise and it was established that by so doing, he had prejudiced the State of $4 612, 44 in import duty. Tawanda Muchemwa prosecuted.