Zimra Boss Linked To Netone’s Tax Fraud Allegations Suddenly Resigns

A controversial Zimra official, Charles Jaure has suddenly resigned from the employ of the country’s revenue collector. Mr. Jaure was at one time last year implicated in bribery, which led to his suspension that lasted until his resignation. In an internal memo, Zimra Commissioner General Faith Mazani wrote:

I write to advise that Mr. Charles Jaure Commissioner Revenue Assurance and Special Projects has resigned from the Authority with immediate effect. He resigned for personal reasons and the Authority wishes to thank him for the services rendered

Where did his bribery allegations come from

The bribery allegations which Mr. Jaure was implicated in were that he had asked for a bribe from a whistleblower who disclosed that Netone was in involved in tax fraud. I know it sounds weird that the whistleblower was being asked to pay for a bribe but that’s what happened according to the Herald’s report.  Back to Netone’s allegations, the report sent by the whistleblower to Zimra and the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission claimed that Netone was undervaluing and underpaying withholding tax, value-added tax and income tax that arose from its airtime in 2015.

Netone is no stranger to issues of that sort- the State-owned Mobile Network Operator has long been used as a playground for corruption and maladministration. Apparently, the government has failed to bring sanity to this second largest Mobile Network Operator for years. The drama which happens there has even seen two CEO’s being suspended, sacked and reinstated (that’s Lazarus Muchenje).

Actually, many people and companies like ‘Netone’s competitors’ have always secretly accused the government of letting Netone get away with almost anything since it doesn’t publish its books of accounts (books) for scrutiny just like how Econet does. One conspiracy theory is that even though Netone’s books are audited, the eyebrow-raising issues are supposedly swept under the carpet. Of course, Netone cant vilified for not publishing its books because it’s not a  public trading company.