Nelson Chamisa Impersonator Rakes in Thousands of Dollars
Thomas Chiripasi
HARARE —
Police have arrested a Harare man for allegedly duping several companies using the name of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Minister Nelson Chamisa.
Police said a middle-aged man posed as Mr. Chamisa to defraud several companies out of thousands of dollars.
Minister Chamisa told VOA that he became aware of this Tuesday after receiving a phone call from the police.
"I received a report from the police that they were investigating a matter where-in a person was involved in some fraud, masquerading as myself, as an impersonator," said Chamisa, adding that "this person appended signatures on my behalf and even made conversations purporting and pretending to be myself.”
Harare provincial police spokesman, Charity Chibanda, said police believe the suspect duped several companies, including National Foods, of stock-feed worth thousands of dollars, saying it was meant to be used at Minister Chamisa’s farm.
But the minister, who is also the organizing secretary of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change formation, said he does not own any farmland.
Chamisa said the only farm he had was "politics” and the closest he had come to own a farm was when “I was tilling the land in Gutu, in those past years”.
Chibanda refused to disclose the name of the suspect saying he is still cooperating with police in the investigation and is expected to be brought before the courts soon to face charges of fraud and false impersonation.
She said the police are yet to determine the exact value of goods that the Harare companies were duped.
