Man loses US$92k to city council’s fake employees

Yeukai Karengezeka
Court Correspondent
Two Harare men who were impersonating council officials appeared in court on Friday for allegedly defrauding a man of US$92 000 in a botched residential stand deal.
Shadreck Dzapasi of Norton and Steady Munyoro of Chitungwiza appeared before Harare provincial magistrate, Mrs Apollonia Marutya.
The two were released on US$250 bail each and were ordered to return to court on January 17, 2025.
Prosecutor Mr Rufaro Chonzi said the complainant, Mr Matthew Wheeler wanted to buy a residential stand in January this year.
He applied for land through the City of Harare’s Department of Housing and Community Service.
While following up on his application at the City of Harare offices, the complainant met Dzapasi, whom he had known for some time.
The complainant confided in Dzapasi that he wanted to buy some land.
Dzapasi allegedly misrepresented to Mr Wheeler that Munyoro was a City of Harare employee and that he could expedite the land acquisition process.
When Mr Wheeler met Munyoro, the latter was reportedly wearing a white dustcoat inscribed City of Harare, and this made the complainant trust him.
Munyoro introduced himself as Samuel Chakacha.
He assured the complainant that he could process the application quickly and facilitate the allocation of land without further delays.
Munyoro took the complainant’s application letter and instructed him to make payments through him.
Between June and October, Mr Wheeler paid a total of US$92 000 to Dzapasi and Munyoro.
Munyoro reportedly signed for the payments and issued the complainant a fake receipt.
Some time last month, the complainant visited City of Harare offices to check on the status of his application.
This is when he discovered that his file was missing and that Dzapasi and Munyoro were not employed by the local authority.
After realising that he had been duped, he tried to recover the money from the accused persons but his efforts were not successful.
He later filed a police report, leading to the accused persons’ arrest.