$90 000 theft manager blames bosses

A SIMBISA southern region banking manager who is facing theft charges involving more than $90 000 has denied the charge saying he was forced to sign an incriminating affidavit.

Simbisa is a subsidiary of Innscor Africa.

Trust Machaka (40) pleaded not guilty to theft charges before Bulawayo magistrate Ms Charity Maphosa on Friday.

His lawyer, Mr Byron Sengweni of Sengweni Legal Practice, made an application for the charges to be dropped at the close of the State case. He alleged that two managers at Simbisa threatened Machaka with arrest and forced him to sign an affidavit incriminating himself.

Magistrate Maphosa dismissed the application saying there was evidence linking Machaka to the crime.

"There is a need for the accused to prove allegations that he was forced to sign the affidavit where he was admitting committing the offence. Accused offered two of his houses to settle the debt he owed. There were audits carried out that proved there were existing shortfalls," said Ms Maphosa.

"Accused was overally in charge of the company's money. He signed for it whenever it was banked. It was discovered during audits that he sent false statements that figures were balancing."

Mr Sengweni had said Machaka was forced to sign the incriminating affidavit. "On September 9 he was called to Mr Tshuma's (Human Resources Manager) office and was accused of stealing cash but he denied the allegations. He was threatened by Mr Tshuma and Mr Lifa Ncube (Finance Manager) with arrest before being forced to admit to theft," said Mr Sengweni.

He said Mr Ncube and Mr Tshuma dictated to Machaka what to write in the affidavit.

"His six-year-old daughter could hear Mr Tshuma and Mr Ncube threatening him with arrest as she was at the office during the time the threats were being made. Had the accused person not been threatened he would not have admitted to the offence," said Mr Sengweni.

Mr Ncube told the court that Machaka stole the money.

"Sometimes his subordinates would not be at work so he is the one who collected cash from shops and banked it. There are banking documents that have his signature on them as evidence," he said.

Prosecuting, Mr Jeremiah Mutsindikwa said Machaka stole the money between July 2015 and July 2016.

"Machaka would receive daily takings from Pizza Inn, Bakers Inn, Creamy Inn, Chicken Inn, Mr Baker, Steers and Nando's. His responsibility was to deposit the money into the company's account. Each month he would under-bank the amounts," he said.