By Takudziridzwa Nyama
Harare – The Harare Magistrates’ Court has sentenced Tafadzwa Dzapasi, a former Debtors Control Officer at the City of Harare, to three years’ imprisonment for orchestrating a multi-million-dollar fraud scheme that resulted in losses amounting to millions of Zimbabwean dollars.
The National Prosecuting Authority of Zimbabwe (NPAZ) states that between November 2022 and May 2023, Dzapasi using his position, manipulated dormant accounts and transitory funds to misrepresent payments, ultimately diverting large sums for personal gain.
He targeted dormant council accounts with credit balances and fraudulently transferred funds to accounts with outstanding debts. His actions deceived the City of Harare into believing that debtors had settled their payments, while in reality, no money had been received.
One of the transactions occurred on December 20, 2022, when he intercepted a suspense account holding temporarily receipted payments from clients with incomplete references.
He misappropriated cash equivalent to ZWL$1,393,875.35, disguising the transaction as a legitimate banking deposit. Among the most significant losses recorded, City of Harare was prejudiced of ZWL$7,414,378.27 in February 2023 and an additional ZWL$12,166,651.76 in March.
The matter came to light following an internal audit, which exposed the offender’s suspicious transactions