HARARE - Three Mazoe Garden Plaza employees who stole food and property worth over $48 000 from the company and took it to their restaurant were arraigned before the Harare magistrates’ court.

Chenjerai Makiwa, 42, Zivaishe Muza, 33 and Munyaradzi Pamhenza, 38, appeared before magistrate Anita Tshuma facing theft of trust property charges.

Mazoe Garden Plaza is a hotel company which trades as Orange Groove Hotel and Conference Centre in Chinhoyi and as Nakas Cuisine Gardens in Mount Pleasant, Harare.

The court heard that on September 23, this year, the company’s managing director got information that Makiwa, Muza and Pamhenza were taking stock from Mazoe Garden Plaza’s storeroom on the pretext that they are delivering it to their workplaces while in actual fact they converted it to their own use.
 
Makiwa is the general manager at Orange Groove Hotel in Chinhoyi while Muza and Pamhenza are supervisor and driver respectively at Nakas Cuisine Gardens.

Working on the information, the managing director allegedly checked the stock and discovered that food and property worth over $48 000 was missing.

He then filed a police report and investigations carried out revealed that the trio were operating a restaurant called Pandare Restaurant in Msasa Park and the missing goods were being diverted to the restaurant.

According to state papers, the trio were using Muza’s house as their storeroom.

As a result of this looting Mazoe Garden Plaza suffered an actual prejudice of $48 814 and goods worth $70 were recovered.

The trio will be back in court today. — Ivan Zhakata