A former financial accountant at Slice Distributors, Tinashe Zengenene, has been accused of defrauding the company of over US$45,000. Zengenene appeared in court before Harare Magistrate Dennis Mangosi this week and was granted bail of US$100.
The allegations:
The State alleges that Zengenene failed to pay suppliers despite receiving approval from the company.
The fraud was discovered by Paddington Mungate, a senior internal auditor at Slice Distributors. Mungate noticed that there were pending payments to suppliers dating back to 2022 and decided to investigate further, H-Metro reported. He obtained statements from 10 suppliers and found that Zengenene had not made the payments, even though he had allegedly received US$45,146 for that purpose. It is believed that Zengenene converted the money for personal use.
Zengenene’s role as a financial accountant included authorising payments and reconciling daily transactions. Mungate, during his routine checks, discovered the discrepancies and confronted Zengenene about the outstanding transactions. Zengenene requested additional time to clear the pending transactions but failed to do so.
Slice Distributors is the company behind popular food chains such as Chicken Slice, Pizza Slice, Creamy Slice, and Slice Grill. The case against Zengenene will continue on March 19, as he faces charges of fraud for misusing company funds.