By Judith Nyuke
A local company, Blessful Catering (Pvt) Limited, has been taken to court on allegations of smuggling 977 500 litres of diesel into Zimbabwe from Mozambique and South Africa through the Chikwalakwala, Forbes and Beitbridge border posts.
The company, represented by Liranzo Mitchel Masiya (34) appeared before Harare provincial magistrate Ruth Moyo charged with smuggling.
The complainant is the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority represented by its Loss Control Manager, Hillary Simbaneuta.
Sometime in 2022, Masiya reportedly formed a company named Blessful Creation (Pvt) Ltd solely to offer catering services nationwide.
Sometime in 2026, Masiya, acting in common purpose with one Marvin Kesani Masiya who is still at large allegedly hatched a plan to smuggle diesel into Zimbabwe from Mozambique and South Africa through the Chikwalakwala, Forbes, and Beitbridge border posts using Blessful Creation (Pvt) Ltd.
On 23 July 2026, detectives received information to the effect that Masiya had allegedly smuggled diesel from Mozambique into Zimbabwe through the Forbes Border Post using the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) as the carrier.
Acting upon such information, detectives attended to the Rusape NRZ Station and discovered that a total of seven rail fuel wagons, each containing 42 500 litres of diesel (totalling 297 500 litres), had been smuggled into the country through Forbes Border Post from Mozambique.
The allleged offence came to light when detectives obtained documents from the Station Manager, Farai Chipunza which falsely reflected the importation of Bitumen instead of diesel.
The documents had been supplied to NRZ by Marvin Kesani Masiya, who is still at large.
Furthermore, it was established that sometime in September 2025, the accused persons smuggled nine (9) loads of methanol from South Africa into Zimbabwe using road transport.
Consequently, a total of 977 500 litres of diesel and nine loads of methanol were allegedly smuggled into Zimbabwe from Mozambique and South Africa without any declaration to the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority.
