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| author/source:Herald (Zimb) |
| published:Fri 28-Dec-2007 |
| posted on this site:Fri 28-Dec-2007 |
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| Article Type : News |
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| Kadzura is a business ally of the Mujurus |
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Court Reporter
Businessman Mr Jonathan Kadzura gave Dorothy Primrose Mutekede - originally arrested as a "cash baroness" - $10 billion in brand-new $500 000 bearer cheques in exchange for US$4 900, Mutekede said after being convicted of illegally dealing in foreign currency. Mutekede appeared before a Harare magistrate on Monday night and pleaded guilty to breaching Exchange Control Regulations. She was remanded in custody until today for sentencing but before she was taken away by prison officers she asked to be allowed to name the source of the $10 billion and implicated Mr Kadzura, who also sits on the advisory panel of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. Mutekede - who was arrested on Saturday night in possession of new $500 000 bearer cheques totalling $10 billion still wrapped in their RBZ sleeves - was brought to court after sunset.
Clerks, interpreters and other staff who had knocked off for the Christmas break had to be recalled to attend to the case. Only area prosecutor Mr Tawanda Zvekare and provincial magistrate Mr Mishrod Guvamombe were still at the courts. Mr Guvamombe ordered the State to bring Mr Kadzura to testify in court today before sentence is passed on Mutekede. Mutekede mentioned two other businessmen she identified only as Ramadan and Mohamed in connection with the money. Mr Guvamombe said Mr Kadzura should testify to help the court assess Mutekede’s blameworthiness and pass an appropriate sentence. Mutekede was convicted of exchanging US$4 900 for Z$10 billion at Cresta Lodge in Harare with two men she did not identify in the statement of agreed facts. On being told she was being remanded in custody, she named Mr Kadzura and even requested Mr Guvamombe to read text messages on her mobile phone purportedly from Mr Kadzura asking her not to mention his name in court.
She insisted on handing over the phone to the court but Mr Guvamombe declined insisting it was premature to do so at that juncture. Mutekede admitted to being an illegal foreign currency dealer and pleaded for a lighter sentence saying she committed the offence to fend for her two-year-old child. She said she operated at Roadport along Fifth Street and had more than 100 colleagues at the regional bus terminus. Mutekede (24) of Chinamano Heights in Harare was not represented by a lawyer. Agreed facts were that on December 22 at around 5:30pm, Mutekede was informed by a fellow dealer that "their usual buyer" required US$5 000 and was waiting for her at Cresta Lodge near the intersection of Samora Machel Avenue and Robert Mugabe Road. Mutekede drove to the hotel an hour later, but the buyer was nowhere in sight. She decided to wait.
When the buyer eventually arrived, they agreed on an exchange rate of US$1 to Z$2 050 000. Mutekede gave the buyer US$4 900 and he, in turn, handed over Z$10 billion in the new bearer cheques plus an extra Z$45 million. After the transaction, Mutekede drove towards the city centre but noticed a car trailing her. Fearing the car’s occupants might be robbers, she diverted to Roadport hoping to get assistance from her colleagues. But the men following her identified themselves as detectives and arrested her at the terminus and seized the cash as an exhibit. The detectives later said that they only decided to follow her because she was driving at above normal speed. At the time of her arrest, the question uppermost in people’s minds was how Mutekede had managed to get hold of such a large amount of cash less than 36 hours after the new bearer cheques were unveiled. Maximum daily withdrawals are pegged at $50 million a day for individuals and $750 million for companies.
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