HARARE – Convicted gold smuggler Henrietta Rushwaya could receive a lenient sentence after the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) said the state would only have suffered prejudice of US$3,300 if her attempt to smuggle 6kg of gold out of the country had been successful.
Rushwaya, the Zimbabwe Miners Federation president, had been due to be sentenced on Friday after she was convicted last week over the 2020 incident at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport, but a judge said he would now pass sentence on November 14 after hearing evidence from ZIMRA.
She remains in custody after her bail was revoked following conviction.
Justice Pisirayi Kwenda said he would hear evidence from ZIMRA on the prejudice to be suffered by the state if Rushwaya had been successful in smuggling the gold to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, before her interception by airport security staff at the X-Ray scanners. The gold was in her handbag.
Rushwaya’s defence was that she had two similar bags and had picked the wrong one, the one with gold, in her dash to catch her flight.
ZIMRA has told the High Court that gold produced by small scale miners attracts 1 percent royalty. The gold worth US$333,000, which it has been established was owned by Rushwaya, would have attracted royalties of US$3,300.
If accepted by the court, the lower amount could convince the judge that the crime was not as serious as argued by the National Prosecuting Authority. Legal experts say she still cannot a custodial sentence.
Two of her co-accused, Stephen Tserai and Raphios Mufandauya, were acquitted over insufficient evidence.
A lenient sentence on Rushwaya could incite public anger, amid media claims that she is a niece of President Emmerson Mnangagwa who is accused of paying lip service to corruption.
In 2020, home affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe said the country was losing US$100 million wealth of gold every month through smuggling. Gold is Zimbabwe’s biggest mineral export after platinum and recently lithium.
