Former Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) news anchor Oscar Pambuka has been sentenced to six years in jail for fraud involving US$12 650.
In 2018, Pambuka and former Zanu PF Highfield MP Psychology Maziwisa were convicted on charges of defrauding the Zimbabwe Power Company of US$12 650 and each sentenced to six years and five months in prison.
The rest of the term was suspended and they were supposed to serve 30 months.
However the two were not happy with the decision and decided to appeal to the High Court against both conviction and sentence.
When the matter was struck off the roll in September last year, the two were supposed to hand themselves over to jail but did not.
Pambuka was then convicted in another case of fraud on Wednesday and subsequently remanded in custody for sentencing.
Upon conviction in the second case, the courts activated Pambuka’s warrant of arrest for the previous case.
Maziwisa is allegedly on the run and has not been accounted for.
In the second case Pambuka and his two friends, Elmore Mwenye, and Ngonidzashe Mbauya, who is in the transport business, were accused of fraud when they appeared at the Mbare Magistrates Court.
Its alleged Pambuka attempted to defraud a Harare-based transporter of R36 000 after misrepresenting to him that he was Croco Motors director Moses Chingwena and wanted advance money to pay for shipment of his motor spare parts in South Africa.
The trio tried to dupe Gibson Mazhangara, who runs Gimatar Logistics.
Prosecutor Vimbai Makamure told the court that on 15 November 2022, Pambuka, masquerading as Croco Motors marketing manager and representing Mr Chingwena, called Mr Mazhangara using a South African number saying they wanted R36 000 as advance payment for shipping spare parts from South Africa.
He claimed Chingwena was engaged in a meeting.
Pambuka then asked Mazhangara to deposit the money into J Velem Enterprises trading as Upholstery Trading’s FNB Bank account in South Africa.
He also told Mazhangira that he would receive the equivalent money in United States dollars in the country.
Mazhangira smelt a rat and went to confirm with Croco Motors who indicated that they had no containers of spare parts in South Africa waiting for shipment.
He took the matter to the police leading to the trio’s arrest.
Mbare magistrate Nyasha Vitorini remanded Pambuka in custody to Thursday for sentencing.
Mbauya and Mwenye, who were implicated in the matter, were cleared and acquitted of the charges.
