A court charged Lonto Ndlovu yesterday with interfering with justice. Ndlovu works as a manager at the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority in Beitbridge. The case involves $27,000 worth of chemicals. The judge kept her in jail until her trial started on April 17.
Johannes Tagasira runs Silverline Chemicals Private Limited and filed the complaint. His company brought 38,000 liters of methanol through the Beitbridge Border Post earlier this month. Officials checked the truck carrying methanol, inspected it physically, collected samples, then approved everything for travel.
Someone stopped the truck at Bubi because they thought it carried diesel instead of methanol. They sent the truck back to Beitbridge for another look. Revenue officials took samples on April 8 and sent them for testing. Then, they seized the cargo, truck, and trailer because test results claimed the liquid was diesel.
Tagasira strongly disagreed with those results. He paid $1,200 for an independent test at the Standard Association of Zimbabwe. Officials took another sample to ZERA on April 12, but those tests said the liquid matched paraffin standards. Tagasira challenged these findings through an email on April 15.
The businessman learned that Zimra planned to sell his cargo without telling him. He rushed to file papers at the High Court on April 22, seeking help. A Zimra lawyer named Tinashe Marange emailed Ndlovu on April 24 about the court case happening in the Masvingo High Court.
Court papers show Ndlovu knew about the legal action and even submitted papers opposing the businessman's claims. Tagasira's lawyer emailed Ndlovu to remind her not to sell the cargo since the courts needed it as evidence. Another Zimra legal officer named Chidzenga also told her to wait until court proceedings were finished.
Justice Zisengwe heard the case that same day and ordered Zimra not to sell the disputed cargo. But Ndlovu ignored this and sold it anyway later that day. On April 28, she removed everything from the Zimra warehouse, destroying all evidence needed for the court case.
Her actions made it impossible for anyone to conduct a third independent test because she destroyed all the evidence. The chemical cargo disappeared completely from government storage despite direct court orders to preserve it for testing, leaving Tagasira with no way to prove what his company actually imported.
Johannes Tagasira runs Silverline Chemicals Private Limited and filed the complaint. His company brought 38,000 liters of methanol through the Beitbridge Border Post earlier this month. Officials checked the truck carrying methanol, inspected it physically, collected samples, then approved everything for travel.
Someone stopped the truck at Bubi because they thought it carried diesel instead of methanol. They sent the truck back to Beitbridge for another look. Revenue officials took samples on April 8 and sent them for testing. Then, they seized the cargo, truck, and trailer because test results claimed the liquid was diesel.
Tagasira strongly disagreed with those results. He paid $1,200 for an independent test at the Standard Association of Zimbabwe. Officials took another sample to ZERA on April 12, but those tests said the liquid matched paraffin standards. Tagasira challenged these findings through an email on April 15.
The businessman learned that Zimra planned to sell his cargo without telling him. He rushed to file papers at the High Court on April 22, seeking help. A Zimra lawyer named Tinashe Marange emailed Ndlovu on April 24 about the court case happening in the Masvingo High Court.
Court papers show Ndlovu knew about the legal action and even submitted papers opposing the businessman's claims. Tagasira's lawyer emailed Ndlovu to remind her not to sell the cargo since the courts needed it as evidence. Another Zimra legal officer named Chidzenga also told her to wait until court proceedings were finished.
Justice Zisengwe heard the case that same day and ordered Zimra not to sell the disputed cargo. But Ndlovu ignored this and sold it anyway later that day. On April 28, she removed everything from the Zimra warehouse, destroying all evidence needed for the court case.
Her actions made it impossible for anyone to conduct a third independent test because she destroyed all the evidence. The chemical cargo disappeared completely from government storage despite direct court orders to preserve it for testing, leaving Tagasira with no way to prove what his company actually imported.
