The owner of Tenda Buses, Ernest Mungwari, has been arrested after he allegedly obstructed the police and Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) officials from seizing goods that had been brought into the country illegally.
Mungwari (72) and businesswoman Mary Njokwe (34) on Tuesday appeared before Mutare magistrate Tendai Mahwe. They were granted $150 bail each and ordered not to interfere with the State witnesses.
Njokwe reportedly smuggled the goods into the country from South Africa. She had received the contraband from a Tenda bus.
Acting on a tip-off, detectives went to Tenda garage in Mutare were they intercepted Njokwe’s two vehicles loaded with the contraband. When Njokwe failed to produce declaration papers of the goods, they proceeded to arrest her.
Meanwhile, Mungwari arrived on the scene and with the help of about 20 touts, violently offloaded the goods from the vehicles in the presence of the detectives and took them to Njokwe’s shop.
On 14 October, the detectives, bolstered by ZRP Support Unit details and ZIMRA officials, arrested Mungwari and Njokwe. The contraband was recovered from Njokwe’s shop where it had been offloaded.