Pretoria - Zimbabwe’s anti-corruption authorities intercepted two vehicles - a yellow Lamborghini Urus reportedly worth $420 000 (more than R7 million) and a red BMW X6 belonging to embattled Zanu-PF Member of Parliament Justice Mayor Wadyajena.
The vehicles owned by the flashy MP who lives in the affluent Borrowdale Brooke suburb in Harare were intercepted at the Beitbridge border post, where they were apparently on the verge of being smuggled into neighbouring South Africa.
The move came after the flamboyant Wadyajena was last week arrested by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) on charges of fraud and money laundering involving $5.8 million fleeced from government-owned cotton company, Cottco.
The Gokwe-Nembudziya parliamentarian was charged alongside co-accused – Cottco managing director Pius Manamike, head of marketing Maxmore Njanji, procurement specialist Fortunate Molai, and Pierpont Moncroix director Chiedza Danha.
Gokwe Nembudziya legislator Justice Mayor Wadyajena's two luxury vehicles being removed from the Beitbridge Border Post for transportation back to Harare.
📸: @tupeyo pic.twitter.com/U9ZvLLXVMh
Wadyajena and his co-accused were released on ZW$200 000 bail each last week by Harare Magistrate Stenford Mambanje.
According to the online publication New Zimbabwe, the magistrate said the State failed to prove that there was a risk of the accused interfering with the witnesses.
Wadyajena and his co-accused are accused of defrauding the Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (Cottco) of $5 million through the fictitious purchase of goods purportedly for use by the government-owned firm, according to the online publication.
State-owned The Herald newspaper reported that following the legal woes, Wadyajena’s top-of-the-range sport utility vehicles were moved from Harare to the border town of Beitbridge, where they were intercepted at the port of entry into South Africa.
A search on vehicle trading site autotrader.co.za shows a used 2020 Lamborghini Urus on the market for R6. 2 million at Sandton.
The vehicles were reportedly transported from Harare in a car carrier, and were offloaded in the town of Beitbridge before being driven to the border, where they were impounded.
Sources told The Herald that the vehicles were being taken into South Africa for “routine service”.
Images posted by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation showed the luxurious vehicles being taken back to Harare.
On Monday, The Herald reported that a fleet of 22 haulage trucks belonging to Wadyajena, through his company Mayor Logistics, have also been seized by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission.
IOL