The Sunday News
Harare Bureau
LANDS, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Deputy Minister, Douglas Karoro, was yesterday remanded in custody when he appeared before a Harare magistrate.
Deputy Minister Karoro who is facing three counts of fraud along with two other accomplices Jeremy Phiri (33) and Dean Dzimunya (36) was not asked to plead when he appeared before magistrate Mrs Tafadzwa Miti.
He will return to court tomorrow for a bail hearing. The three are accused of defrauding GMB of 700 bags of fertiliser, maize seed and 5 000 seed kits from the Presidential Inputs Scheme, all worth over US$70 000. According to the State, sometime in April this year, Dep Min Karoro allegedly approached Phiri who is the chief executive of Modnat Agriculture looking for a buyer for his 700 bags of Compound D fertiliser. On April 21 2022, Phiri met with a buyer Widdorn Chiodza who allegedly paid US$10 700 for the fertiliser.
Douglas Karoro
Phiri allegedly handed the cash to Dep Min Karoro. It is further alleged that Dep Min Karoro informed Phiri that the fertiliser was at GMB Mushumbi depot. Later that day, Dep Min Karoro allegedly contacted depot manager Lovejoy Ngowe, who is already on remand, and sent trucks to collect the fertiliser. It is further alleged that on April 23, 2022 Chiodza received a call from Dzimunya instructing him to return the fertiliser since the deal had gone sour, but he refused.
“Dzimunya and Karoro then engaged one Mugove Chidamba (who is already on remand) to help them recover the fertiliser from Chiodza. On April 24, 2022, Chidamba proceeded to Chiodza’s home for negotiations and managed to recover 400 x 50kg Compound D fertiliser then refunded him US$6 400.”
Dep Min Karoro and Chidamba allegedly hired Richard Tsiga to ferry the 400 bags of the recovered fertiliser to GMB Aspindale, purporting that they wanted to swap with Ammonium Nitrate. Chidamba allegedly sourced another 300 x 50kg of Compound D.
At Aspindale GMB, the load could not be accepted because of improper documentation.
Obert Zhoya
Dep Min Karoro allegedly negotiated for the swap with the Aspindale GMB Chain Supply Manager, Obert Zhoya, who instructed Ngowe to raise a depot to depot transfer so that they could accept the fertiliser.
Mr Ngowe raised the depot-to-depot transfer vouchers and scanned them to GMB Aspindale, it is alleged. Court records further state that GMB Aspindale contacted Dep Min Karoro to return the 400 x 50kg Ammonium Nitrate fertilisers. Dep Min Karoro contacted Tsiga who said the fertilisers were offloaded at Chidamba’s home.
“Karoro proceeded to Mbare (Kumabanana area) and recovered a truck of 200 x 50kg of Ammonium Nitrate and engaged Tsiga to ferry them back to GMB Aspindale. Karoro liaised with Chidamba to look for the remaining 200 bags of Ammonium Fertiliser,” it is alleged.
The value of the stolen fertilisers is US$27 300-00. Some 501 x 50kg suspected fake bags of fertiliser were also recovered. On count two, on March 7, 2022, Ngowe allegedly received 30 050 tonnes of seed maize meant for the Presidential Input Programme to benefit Mbire Constituency, in which Dep Min Karoro is the Member of Parliament.
Dep Min Karoro and Ngowe allegedly booked out the Seed Maize, converted it to their own use and issued Goods Despatched Vouchers in a bid to cover up their act.
On count three on March 23 2022, Dep Min Karoro and Ngowe allegedly converted to their own use a total of 5 000 Vegetable Combo kits from Valley Seed Private Limited that were supposed to be handed over to GMB Mushumbi under the Presidential Input Programme.
