By Rex Mphisa
THE Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) was scammed of some $159 000 in a botched aeroplane charter deal meant to see athletes from the country’s revenue collector participate in the Southern African Inter-Revenue Administration Games in Namibia.
The games featuring Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia were scheduled for Swakopmund, a premier coastal town in western Namibia, known for its distinct German colonial architecture, cool Atlantic climate, and location between the Namib Desert and the ocean.
Founded in 1892, Swakopmund serves as a top adventure hub offering activities like quad biking, skydiving, several other sports disciplines and desert tours and was to host the revenue bodies games competitions.
The other three countries attended but sections of Zimbabwe’s media made unverified reports that Zimbabwe was represented at those games.
Yet the poor athlete officers were taken on a merry-go round in Harare under false promises the plane to Namibia would pick them “soon”.
In an interview this week Zimra Marketing and Corporate Affairs Executive Gladman Njanji acknowledged the non-event and said recoveries of the funds were underway.
“ZIMRA advises that procurement of travel services for the Southern Africa Inter- Revenue Administration Games (SAIRAG) followed established internal procedures, including the requisite procurement and legal oversight.”
“The travel did not proceed due to the service provider’s failure to secure the necessary clearances within agreed timelines,” Njanji said.
ZIMRA, he said, will not incur any financial loss, as all payments are contractually secured.
“These are being reversed in accordance with established safeguards, with the service provider fully cooperating throughout the process.”
But this publication has it on good authority that due diligence in a situation involving such a huge organisation may have been left at kid’s play and the man hours lost shuttling athletes around Harare may be a loss never to be recovered.
Sources within the organisation said for some reason organisers dealt with an agent whose record has been clouded in some well known unsuccessful deals that ended up in courts or sour.
“There were no proper investigations or rather due diligence as regards the travel agent tasked with securing transport for the athletes and delegation. His was an example of how not to look for transport and for an organisation with access to several air companies and reputable flight agents it is embarrassing we ended up there,” said a Zimra official.
After weighing different road and air options, dismissing road travel by the likes of Tamuka Coaches, Zimra contracted one Matipedza Karase to secure them a chartered plane to the games and their loss control department said the risk to get his services were very low.
Funds were transferred to him and he is reported to have said he would secure a plane from East Africa, which later changed to South Africa, before he came in person to try and “look fir a plane to hire” at the Robert Mugabe International Airport.
The contract was despite him having been to court with Big Brother South Africa 2011 winner Wendall Partson for a similar failed deal involving a plane then supposed to take young children from 19 schools on a trip to Great Zimbabwe.
Wendall, represented by Harrison Nkomo of Mhishi and Partners successfully sued Matinetsa Karase for that botched deal.
Karase also features in another September 2025 deal involving Jetex Air that sought to recover US$210 000 said to have been advanced to Air Zimbabwe on various occasions as per its requests communicated through chief executive Edmund Makona and himself (Matipedza Karase) as counterpart.
He is in this case presented as Jetex principal consultant.
“Anyone should have been able to go through his previous dealings and transactions and raise the red flag. Proper conclusions should have been arrived at and most probably try elsewhere. There was reasonable risk,” said a Zimra officer.
For two days athletes from Zimra, the country’s tax and main revenue collector, woke up in the wee hours of the morning to be shuttled to and from the airport each time being duped the plane was just behind the next cloud.
And it never was anywhere near to haul them to the games which ended in their absence after running from April 3 to 5 in Swakonpund, Namibia.
At one time the athletes were taken to the Harare Showgrounds for lunch with promises they would be in the air in he next hour.
Then excuses began to rain with jargon like “trying to get airspace and landing rights from different countries whose space would be used” in endless make-believe stories.
“At one time trip organisers were told that a certain airport did not have landing lights which are normally cut off at between 4:30 and 6am whether it made any sense,” said the source.
“But the worst injury to intelligence was when he arrived at the Robert Mugabe International Airport hoping to hire a plane as if it is something like a bus at Mbare Musika!”