By Judith Nyuke
Two Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) employees appeared before a Harare magistrate charged with criminal abuse of office after being accused of defrauding their employer of over USD 6,340,251.64.
Paradzai Mutasa (35) and Shupikai Mary Nicola Marongwe (52) appeared before Harare Magistrate Marewanazvo Gofa who postponed their bail ruling to 18 September 2025.
Marongwe and Mutasa are being legally represented by lawyer Killian Mandiki.
According to State papers, Marongwe is employed by Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) as the Database Administrator and Mutasa as the Systems Developer.
ZIMRA is implementing the Zimbabwe Electronic Single Window project which integrates with the ASYCUDA system to simplify doing business.
This phased project allows for the combined payment of customs duties and other regulatory fees such as permits and licenses on a single receipt.
ZIMRA, with the help of United Nation Conference on Trade and Development UNCTAD consultants including Ugandan national Consent Onega established the ASYCUDA database.
The consultants collaborated with ZIMRA’s system developers to set up the database and then handed it over to ZIMRA’s IT personnel which included the accused individuals.
The State represented by Rufaro Chonzi alleges that on September 4, 2024, consultant Innocent Onega asked Marongwe to create a view-only account linking the ASYCUDA and Zimbabwe Electronic Single Window systems.
Instead, Marongwe and Mutasa allegedly created an account named ZESWASYCUDA with unauthorized administrative rights.
The account, which violated ZIMRA’s change management policy allowed them to edit or delete any database table and they shared the login credentials between themselves.
The Court heard that the two went on and recruited the Clearing Agents across the country whose prepayment accounts would be utilized in this scam.
Using the unauthorized account, Mutasa and Marongwe allegedly inflated the prepayment accounts of clearing agents with fictitious figures misrepresenting that funds had been deposited into ZIMRA’s bank accounts when they had not.
It’s alleged that clearing agents used the inflated figures in their prepayment accounts to clear goods without actually paying customs duties to ZIMRA.
This allowed them to import goods without the proper payment and it’s believed that a number of these agents were misled into thinking the funds were genuine.
Thereafter, the accused persons would then be given hard cash by the clearing agents and went on to convert it for personal use with the clearing agents getting their shares.
The state alleges that the duo acted against their duties as public officers favoring themselves and disfavoring ZIMRA. Their actions caused ZIMRA to suffer a loss of ZIG 171,186,079.41 (equivalent to USD 6,340,251.64) and USD 37,200.00, with no funds recovered.
