Three arrested for stealing passport application forms

By Desmond Chingarande | NewsDay |

Three unemployed Harare men on Saturday appeared before Harare magistrate Judith Taruvinga facing allegations of stealing passport forms.

Simon Matsika (37), Bisset Chikura (39) and Antony Mubweza (49) were remanded on $5 000 bail each.

They were all represented by Tapson Dzvetero.

The complainant is the State represented by Tarisai Chitanhi, who is employed by the Registrar-General’s Office as a cashier supervisor.

Allegations are that on July 1, the Registrar-General’s Office received 10 boxes with a total of 20 000 passport application forms from Fidelity Printers and Refiners (Private) Limited with serial numbers ranging from 4159001 to 4179000.

However, a total of 90 passport application forms with serial numbers 417001 to 4175090 were stolen by one of the employees in the Registrar-General’s Office passport section.

The State alleges that one of the stolen passport application forms was submitted for processing in the name of Paul Mutatobi.

Detectives then carried out investigations, which resulted in the arrest of Mubweza, who in turn implicated Chikura. Chikura then led detectives to Matsika.

Matsika confessed that the forms had been stolen by an unnamed employee at the Registrar-General’s Office.