Businesswoman off the hook

Nyore Madzianike Senior Court Reporter

BUSINESSWOMAN and Connect Water chief executive, Ms Smolly Moyo, who was facing allegations of duping a businessman of R290 000 has been freed.

Moyo will only return to court by way of summons after Harare provincial magistrate Rumbidzai Mugwagwa dismissed the State’s application for further postponement of her case and further remand.

She was accused of duping Mr Prince Abraham, the managing director of Nedlac, which has business interests in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Ms Mugwagwa said Ms Moyo has been attending court without being furnished with a trial date by the State.

Allegations against her were that sometime in June last year, Mr Abraham was introduced to her by a friend before indicating that she could assist him in getting back his US$700 000 with President Mnangagwa’s assistance.

Reports were that on June 7 at around midday, Mr Abraham met Ms Moyo at Rainbow Towers in Harare who told him that she had earlier in the day met President Mnangagwa during the national clean-up campaign.

Mr Abraham allegedly told Ms Moyo how he had lost his money and revealed the challenges he was facing in transferring funds into his South Africa-based company’s account to buy some valves.

Ms Moyo reportedly lied that she had a Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) facility for telegraphic money transfers and could assist to transfer Mr Abraham’s money.

She allegedly asked him to transfer in Zimbabwean dollars, the equivalent of R470 522 to cover for the latter’s invoices in South Africa.

On June 10, Mr Abraham allegedly transferred $190 000 from his Nedlac Ecobank account into the Connect Water account.

It was said that $181 934 was to be converted to rands before being transferred into Nedlac Automation South Africa’s FNB Bank account.

After transferring $190 000, Ms Moyo reportedly showed Mr Abraham a forged transfer confirmation receipt valued at R470 522, implying that it had been processed at Ecobank. She told him that the transfer would reflect in his South African account the same day.

When Mr Abraham noticed that the transaction was taking too long to be processed, he asked Ms Moyo to reverse the transaction, saying he was running out of time but she allegedly became evasive.

On July 4, Mr Abraham received R50 000 which was deposited into his FNB account from Ms Moyo.

By July 10, R180 000 had been deposited into Mr Abraham’s Nedlac South Africa account but the remaining R290 522 is yet to be paid.

To conceal the alleged offence, Ms Moyo reportedly blocked all forms of communication with Mr Abraham.

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