TWO Beitbridge brothers allegedly turned their small-town office into a full-blown forgery factory, churning out bogus border documents before the law finally caught up with them.

The Zimbabwe Insurance Crimes Bureau working with CID detectives pounced on Hopewell and Phillip Ndlovu, suspected to be part of a syndicate sneaking goods through the busy Beitbridge Border Post using fake paperwork.

ZICB, which operates under the Insurance Council of Zimbabwe, has recently beefed up its presence in the border town to verify the growing flood of suspicious insurance documents. Their deployment paid off this week when tip-offs led investigators straight to the Ndlovu duo’s doorstep.
Sources told B-Metro that a trap was set after intelligence linked the pair to a production line of forged Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa yellow insurance cards.

“When we moved in, they were knee-deep in forgery,” said a source. “They were printing and distributing fake Comesa yellow cards and pocketing the proceeds.”

The raid reportedly uncovered a stash of forgery tools and illicit documents. Officers seized blank Comesa cards, fake and original birth and death certificates, blank Central Vehicle Registry driver’s licences, a Zimbabwe Revenue Authority receipt book, several passports, four erased defensive driving licence certificates, and South African motor registration books including blank copies.

Also recovered were five printers, a laptop, a laminating machine, a price-label gun and other equipment believed to be used in the illegal operation.

The brothers are expected to appear in court on Wednesday facing charges of forgery, fraud, possession of articles for criminal use and violating the Immigration Act.
Investigations are ongoing as authorities dig deeper into what could be a much wider border-side scam.