HARARE: A 40-year-old man who was employed by a South African oil company as a retailer manager for Zimbabwe has appeared in court charged with defrauding his employer of $900,000.
Ronald Masimba Nyandoro appeared before magistrate Elisha Singano on Monday and was remanded to May 11 on $500 bail with stringent reporting conditions.
According to the State, Nyandoro was employed as a network and retail manager by SA-based AfricOil Limited which has a subsidiary in Zimbabwe.
Court heard that his duties included sourcing clients and managing business in Zimbabwe.
The company has a credit facility for approved clients which receive fuel and pay after selling the commodity.
It was also Nyandoro’s job to source new clients and forward their applications electronically to South Africa for approval and listing.
Prosecutors say Nyandoro, with intent to defraud, submitted credit application forms for 10 companies which never applied for fuel from AfricOil.
The applications were approved and given the credit facility.
Court heard that between 2015 and 2016 Nyandoro created factitious purchase claims purporting that the companies made orders for various litres of fuel.
The orders were approved and some release notes were generated and electronically forwarded to Nyandoro.
He then gave the release notes to his accomplices who in turn used them as proof of purchase to collect fuel from the company’s depots and converted to personal use.
The offence came to light last year when the company’s credit controller, Mzwake Mdakane, discovered that some companies had accumulated huge debts and were not making any efforts to pay.
He made some follow-ups and discovered that the companies never purchased fuel from AfricOil and also that they never applied for a credit facility.
State alleges that some of the companies never actually existed.
As a result of Nyandoro’s actions, the company suffered a total prejudice of $976 608 and nothing was recovered.
Sebastin Mutizirwa appeared for the State.