MARTIN MAWAYA
GWERU–Judgement in the matter involving the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) liaison officer Mercy Dzvuke (48) who is accused of criminal abuse of duty has been set for May 4, by Gweru Magistrate Progress Murandu.
The ZIMRA official who was represented by Reginald Chidawanyika of Chitere and Chidawanyika Legal Practitioners pleaded not guilty to the charges when she appeared in court today.
It is alleged that on August 2, 2022 around 11am, Dzvuke in the company of Alfred Gwara were conducting compliance checks on Tax Returns when they visited Doctor Thomas Temba Ndebele surgery in Gweru to serve him with a final reminder of the outstanding Tax Returns.
The court further heard that the duo advised Ndebele that his failure to submit returns attracts a heavy penalty.
However, the complainant pleaded for a chance to compile and submit all the outstanding returns.
The officers then recommended him to engage a tax consultant by the name Nyanhete.
The court heard that in the process Dzvuke solicited for US$500 bribe from Ndebele so that they can delete the penalties in the ZIMRA system.
It is alleged that the complainant indicated that he could not meet the demand since he was financially constrained.
Around Mid-August, Dzvuke made a follow-up call to the surgery about the bribe but Ndebele could not meet the demand.
Ndebele, the court heard reported the matter to ZIMRA head office where Crispen Marengano and Sympathy Chipise were tasked to investigate.
Marengano and Chipise then engaged the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Gweru to set up a trap.
On September 1, 2022 Ndebele was asked to contact the accused through a phone call and a trap money of US$250 of serialized US$50-00 denominations was supplied to him.
At around 4pm, Ndebele called Dzvuke to the surgery to collect US$250 that was readily available.
Upon receiving the call, the court heard that the accused went to the surgery and collected the money and detectives acting on the information that Dzvuke received the trap money, intercepted and arrested her outside the surgery.
The trap money was recovered and used as exhibit number 274/22.
However, in her evidence in chief, Dzvuke told the court that she collected “the money from Doctor Ndebele for onward transmission to the bookkeeper Nyanhete, because I wanted to assist the client to comply with the ZIMRA systems.
“The tax returns money are removed by the system and the manager not by the officer”.
Monica Mungweni prosecuted.
