HARARE – The High Court has ordered the forfeiture to the state of a house in Mandara, Harare, and a Toyota Hilux after finding they were bought with proceeds of crime linked to fraud at NetOne.
In a judgement handed down on January 14, 2026, Justice Benjamin Chikowero ruled that former NetOne cashier Daniel Kalira used unlawful proceeds to acquire the assets and then went to “extreme” lengths to conceal their true ownership through relatives and associates.
The ruling followed an opposed civil forfeiture application by the Prosecutor General under the Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Act.
Kalira is facing criminal charges at the Harare Magistrates Court, where he is accused of defrauding NetOne of ZWL$108 million worth of airtime vouchers between September 2021 and May 2022. Prosecutors allege he manipulated the company’s inventory management system by splitting transactions, creating fictitious physical airtime entries which he then stole. No recoveries were made.
He is also accused of money laundering after allegedly using the proceeds of crime to buy Stand 913 Mandara Township in December 2021, while posing his grandmother, Harriet Kalira, as the purchaser.
Chikowero rejected claims that the US$52,000 purchase price came from a gratuity allegedly sent from Australia by Harriet Kalira’s former employer, saying there was no credible paper trail.
“Australia and Africa are continents apart. There is no paper trail showing the lawful movement of an amount of US$58,000 from Australia to Cape Town,” the judge said.
He dismissed affidavits and border declaration forms produced in support of the claim, noting evidence from Zimra that the documents were fake.
“The ZIMRA date stamp purportedly reflected on the declaration form had been decommissioned,” Chikowero noted, adding that the font and missing officer details further exposed the document as fraudulent.
The court found that Kalira personally drove the Mandara transaction, viewing the property, paying cash and signing the agreement of sale, while the supposed purchaser played no role.
“The most probable inference that I draw from these facts is that the purchaser was the first respondent,” Chikowero ruled.
The judge also ordered the forfeiture of a Toyota Hilux registered in the name of Kalira’s partner, and mother of his child, Charlotte Chivavarirwa, after rejecting claims that it was bought using proceeds from a gold mining joint venture.
“I am satisfied that the first and second respondents… connived… to craft the fictitious joint venture agreement… to give the false impression that the US$32,000 used to purchase this vehicle was her share of the proceeds,” he said.
Chikowero stressed that under the law, the state does not have to prove a direct link to a specific offence.
“What must be proved… is that the property is proceeds from some conduct constituting or associated with some serious criminal offence,” he said.
In the order, the court directed that the Mandara property and the Toyota Hilux be transferred to the state within seven days, failing which the Sheriff would execute the transfers. Other luxury vehicles targeted in the application were spared after the state conceded they had been acquired before the alleged criminal conduct.
Each party was ordered to bear its own costs.
