‘Mutsvangwa's son arrested movie-style'

THE son of Women's Affairs minister Monica Mutsvangwa and Zanu PF spokesman Christopher Mutsvangwa, Neville, was arrested in dramatic fashion as he sought to evade law enforcement agents, it emerged in court yesterday.

Police had to cut an electric fence to his house and jump over a precast wall to arrest a terrified Mutsvangwa who was found hiding next to a rubbish pile.

Neville was picked up on Wednesday afternoon by detectives from the Criminal Investigation Department's Commercial Crimes Division.

He will spend the weekend in cells as the State opposed bail saying Neville was a flight risk.

He faces four criminal charges including contravening the telecommunications act after a Starlink router was recovered at his house on Thursday evening.

Mutsvangwa (44) is jointly charged with Simbarashe Tichingana (45) and Elias Majachani (38) on two other charges of illegally dealing in foreign currency and money laundering.

They were remanded in custody to May 13 by Harare magistrate Dennis Mangosi.

According to State prosecutor Thomas Chanakira, Mutsvangwa was not fit to be granted bail because it had been difficult to arrest him.

It is reported that on May 8, detectives were divided into two teams, one went to Mutsvangwa's house and the other to Mumba Money Transfer offices.

Upon arriving at Mutsvangwa's house, detectives identified themselves and negotiated entry.

However, Mutsvangwa through some unidentified women who claimed to be his wife allegedly denied the police entry saying he did not trust the officers because they were in civilian clothes.

It is alleged that Tichingana then arrived at the scene and after being interviewed, he misrepresented that he was a neighbour.

Tichingana was subsequently searched and his phone revealed some evidence of transactions to Mutsvangwa's Mumba Money shadow company leading to his arrest.

The court heard that the detectives had to seek help from Marlborough Police Station to gain access into Mutsvangwa's house, but once they gained entry, they failed to locate him inside the house.

“Another thorough search was conducted throughout the whole yard leading to the arrest of Mutsvangwa who was hiding inbetween a security wall and some sacks stashed with some waste materials,” the prosecutor said.

Upon his arrest the police recovered a Samsung 522 Ultra cellphone, Galaxy 2 fold, 4 cellphones with South African lines, a Galaxy S24 Liltra cellphone with a South African line and an HP laptop core i7.

The police also recovered 42 STM Cards for Next Cellular, Urovo Point of Sale Machine, 119 Mumba Money business cards and 28 debit cards which the accused allegedly used to commit the crimes.

The other team of detectives simultaneously visited Mumba Money offices situated at 3 San Fernando Court, corner Fifth and Five Avenue, Harare, were they reportedly saw people entering the office requesting for money transfer services.

The computers of the accused were in use and displaying some illegal transactions. Majachani was then arrested and an Acer Aspire C22 Core i3, Acer Aspire C22 Core i3 computers, among other items, were recovered from the office.

They also recovered US$ 3 890 cash.