By A Correspondent- Police have arrested a Harare businessman and seized at least 113 driving licence discs that were due to be handed to aspiring drivers who paid US$250 each to be issued with the documents without undergoing the Vehicle Inspectorate Department (VID) tests.

Detectives arrested businessman Tendekai Madongorere and Julius Punungwe before seizing a number of documents which included:

• 113 fake driving licence discs and certificates of competence with names of aspiring drivers,
• five fake defensive driving certificates,
• five card printers used to produce the documents,
• 400 fake blank national identity cards,
• one fake Zimra tax clearance certificate,
• one fake deed of grant in respect of a Mufakose house,
• 29 copies of serialised birth record documents and nine copies of birth certificates.
• A fake Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) identity card in the name of Madongorere
• fake Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) identity cards bearing the names of Innocent Kayo, Edmund Mhere and Tichaona Chijwanha.
• fake Covid-19 essential staff cards,
• fake Cambridge O-Level and A-Level certificates,
• a desktop computer,
• three fake diploma certificates, and other dubious papers.

Three months ago, The Herald carried an investigative story in which fraudsters were advertising on social media that they can facilitate the issuance of driving licences within hours.

Madongorere (48) is a director of Impact Designs Private Limited which operates in Harare’s central business district while Punungwe (47) is unemployed.

Police established from interviewing the 113 people whose names appeared on the fraudulent driving licence documents that they had paid US$250 each for the discs.

The people in question, are expected to give evidence as State witnesses in the trial of the two suspects.

Detectives at Chitungwiza Police Station received information that some fraudsters were printing forged official documents selling them to people in Harare and Chitungwiza.

The police arrested Madongorere who then implicated Punungwe who was subsequently arrested.

The two are in custody, having lost two freedom bids at Chitungwiza Magistrates’ Court and the High Court.

They are now back at Chitungwiza Court with a fresh freedom bid dubbed “application for bail pending trial on changed circumstances”.

A magistrate is yet to determine the application.-statemedia