Tuck-Shop Turf Wars Turn Ugly as Refugee Accuses State Agents of Harassment

By Staff Reporter

Amid deepening tuck-shop wars in downtown Harare, Congolese businessman and refugee Desire Nsengimana has filed a complaint with the Zimbabwe Independent Complaints Commission alleging harassment and efforts by State security agents and immigration officials to have him deported.

Smear campaigns among foreign operators in the area have reportedly involved the hiring of security agents to facilitate the elimination (or deportation) of business rivals from the country.

Nsengimana, who has been detained since June, alleges he was kidnapped by agents who falsely claimed he was a Rwandan spy and enemy of the State seeking his deportation, further claiming that immigration official Machona is now complicit through his repeated arrest and detention, driven by jealousy from rival refugee businessmen seeking his removal.

He said the purported “intelligence” against him is not evidence, but gossip weaponized by those who wish to eliminate commercial competition.

The businessman has formally sought the ZICC’s intervention and an investigation, instructing his lawyer Admire Rubaya to submit a letter, dated November 7 and addressed to the ZICC Executive Secretary, detailing several complaints against the State agents.

“On or about the 10 of June 2025, our client was kidnapped by a contingent of individuals who he claims presented themselves as members of the Central Intelligence Organisation whom, if given the chance, he is capable of identifying .

“His captors communicated the spurious allegations against him. They threatened and ordered him to leave Zimbabwe, having been falsely branded an “enemy of the State.”

“This designation was based on the unsubstantiated claim that he is an operative of Rwanda’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), allegedly deployed to target Rwandan refugees who settled in Zimbabwe post 1994,” part of the letter read.

According to Nsengimana, he told the agents he is a genuine and recognized refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, settled in Zimbabwe without any connection to Rwanda, thus denying being a member of Rwanda’s National Intelligence and Security Service.

“He alleges that he told the alleged CIO agents that certain Rwandan refugees who settled in Zimbabwe just after the 1994 Rwandan genocide were the ones who were just seeing shadows and were on a frolic of their own, giving the security agents in Zimbabwe false information for purposes of weeding out of Zimbabwe other refugees like Desire Nsengimana who they regarded as threats in business circles,” he said.

“ There was nothing to the allegations as it was a simple case of jealousy and rivalry wherein his detractors sought and still seek to equate his business acumen with state sponsorship.”

Countering the spy accusation, Rubaya said his client is simply a foreigner from the Democratic Republic of Congo who has been a genuine refugee in Zimbabwe since November 2014, and his legal status has not been withdrawn.

“Subsequent to his kidnapping, he was then handed over to one Immigration Compliance Officer Machona who then instructed him to visit the Immigration Department Offices the next day, the 11″ of June 2025.

“He was then advised by Machona that he was going to be detained at Harare Remand Prison as a prohibited person for deportation to Rwanda,” he said.

Perplexed by the abuse of State apparatus in the name of State Security—given he is not a danger to the Republic of Zimbabwe—Nsengimana alleges that Machona admitted his arrest and detention were actually dictated by powerful members of the Central Intelligence Organisation linked to a clique of refugees from Rwanda.