A University of Zimbabwe (UZ) student was given a one-year jail sentence for stealing 53 sim cards or lines that were part of NetOne’s Social Welfare program. The kicker to all of this is that the lines were loaded with ZWL$1 700 each which if you do some simple maths is just over ZWL$90 000.
According to the Masvingo Mirror, the student Tatenda Manhimanzi who is a third-year Social Work student took the lines from the Department of Social Development’s Chipinge offices where she was on attachment. After stealing the lines she proceeded to transfer the money (via mobile money) in those sim cards to people in exchange for cash.
She reportedly did this in batches of varying sizes. The first was ZWL$78 200 transfer she did from 46 lines. The rest was then polished off in a couple of batches to which she received cash for them all.
The whole operation is said to have spanned several months starting from October last year. It was only discovered earlier this month when the police received information of the bulk transfer from the 46 NetOne lines mentioned earlier.
As punishment, Magistrate Franklin Mkwananzi gave Manhimanzi a 12-month jail sentence with 4 months removed on the condition of good behaviour.
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