To actually believe in the concept of someone tapping diesel fuel from a rock is one thing, but to actually be conned into funding the person…. well, that’s just another story altogether.

It happened to Rubert Mugabe’s government, funnily enough.

You will not believe this!

Actually, you probably will..

This, from News24:

Trickster convicted of fraud

[I love it when they use the word “Trickster”]

Harare – A medicine woman, who conned President Robert Mugabe’s government out of about US$1m by bamboozling ministers into believing she could tap diesel fuel from a rock, was convicted of fraud at the weekend, state media reported on Monday.

Rotina Mavhunga, who goes by the alias of Nomatter Tagirira, found an abandoned fuel tank in the bush near the northern town of Chinhoyi in March 2007.

 

Mugabe dreamt of petrol coming
out of rocks

 

She filled it with diesel, attached a pipe to the outlet and concealed it at the top of a rock, the Chinhoyi magistrate’s court heard.

She then summoned top government officials to witness her “discovery.” At a signal, a hidden accomplice would open the tap on the pipe and the officials would gasp in amazement as refined diesel poured down the side of the rock.

A cabinet “task force” dispatched by Mugabe to investigate the claim returned to declare that Zimbabwe’s persistent fuel shortages were at an end. Government officials and businessmen lavished money and vehicles on the medium until several months later, when a second group of ministers began to express doubt in the woman.

Judge Ignatius Mugova found Mavhunga guilty of defrauding the government of about US$1m, and of “misrepresenting to a public official” that she could conjure diesel from a stone, the state-controlled Herald daily reported.

[It goes on. Read more HERE]

How incredibly awesome is that story? And I strongly urge you to click that link above to read more. You’ll read about how the task force were so in awe of the chick that they removed their shoes in her presence. That, and the fact that she was “growling” in the dock during the trial.

I wonder what exactly went through her head. I mean, it would have been one thing fleeing with the cash. But the fact that she hung around and carried on the lark. I mean, really – did she reckon she could sustain the bullshit forever? Was she using the cash to buy petrol to pour down the rock?

Silly cow.

She should have left before she was “found out” and headed for North Korea. She could have pulled the same stunt with Kim Jong Il, except maybe with champagne instead of diesel. Maybe using JC Le Kak and claiming it was Dom?

[thanks lee]