A Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) systems developer accused of helping orchestrate a multimillion dollar fraud has been granted bail after an earlier application was denied.
Paradzai Mutasa (35) is alleged to have played a central role in a scheme that cost Zimra more than US$6.3m.
He was released on US$300 bail by Harare regional magistrate Marehwanazvo Gofa.
Mutasa had initially been denied bail last week but reapplied with new legal representation from Admire Rubaya.
His lawyer argued that prosecutors had consented to bail in comparable cases involving other accused officials.
Mutasa is jointly charged with Zimra database administrator Shupikai Mary Nicola Marongwe 52.
The two face counts of criminal abuse of office and in the alternative, fraud.
Prosecutors allege that Mutasa and Marongwe abused their positions to manipulate Zimra’s customs management systems.
They are accused of creating a fictitious account with extensive access rights which they then used to inflate clearing agents’ prepayment accounts with false deposit entries.
The inflated balances allegedly allowed agents to clear goods without paying duties in return for kickbacks shared with the accused.
The scheme is said to have begun in September 2024 when Marongwe was asked by a Ugandan consultant working on the Zimbabwe Electronic Single Window (ZESW) project to create a restricted view-only account.
Instead, prosecutors say, she and Mutasa created a powerful unauthorised account that bypassed supervisory controls.
The pair allegedly exploited the account to manipulate both the ZESW and the Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA) platforms, enabling the fraud.
Zimra is said to have lost ZWL171m (about US$6.34m) and US$37,200 in revenue. No funds have been recovered.
