Court Reporter
A Tanzanian businessman, who was allegedly caught re-packing Oriental and Zam Zam rice into branded packaging belonging to another company, has appeared in court charged with fraud.

Mlengela Anastazi, director of Bolstfern Investment, ordered his workers to re-pack the two brands of rice into 25kg bags of Aroz Mariana before misrepresenting to customers that it was the original Aroz Mariana rice.
He then sold bags worth US$6 350 to Danny Chiku. Anastazi was not formally charged when he appeared before Harare magistrate Ms Anita Tshuma, who granted him US$500 bail, coupled with some stringent conditions. As part of the conditions, Anastazi was ordered to surrender his passport, report once a week at the Licence

Inspectorate Unit and not to interfere with witnesses.
Prosecutor Mr David Magwegwe alleges that police received a complaint from Ayan Trading of counterfeit Aroz Mariana rice of 25kg bags made by the accused and being sold at US$18,50 each. It is alleged police officers set up a trap when they pretended to be customers and placed an order.
Mr Magwegwe said that Superintendent Tenderere, Assistant Inspector Kadonhera and Sergeant Chikwangwani then went to the premises to “collect their order” and found Anastazi’s workers re-packing the rice.

He alleged that 995 new empty 25kg bags of Aroz Mariana, 500 empty bags and 902 packed and sealed bags of Oriental and Zam Zam rice were recovered from the warehouse.

It is further alleged that 56 bags of packed “Aroz Mariana” were also recovered from the storeroom.
The officers confiscated one sewing machine, two sealing machines and a weighing machine, which Anastazi was using.