IN a shocking revelation that has exposed deep rooted corruption at Lupane Provincial Registrar’s Office, a Pakistan national was issued with a Zimbabwean National Identity Card bearing a common local surname, Sibanda, and had his passport application processed on the same day.
Staff at the offices further allegedly forged documents
showing that the Pakistan national, Shollkat Saleem (who was now called
Shollkat Saleem Sibanda) was born on 28 February 1994 at Sibangani Village in
Lupane District to a Stella Sibanda of 21799 Pumula South in Bulawayo. The information
is contained on his birth certificate which, however, does not have his
father’s name.
However, Sibangani village head, Mr Busani Moyo, in a
signed affidavit stamped by police, dismissed ever knowing of a Stella and not
even receiving a report over the years that there was a baby of Pakistani
origin born under his jurisdiction. Neither do other villagers know of Stella
and her “claimed” son.
Investigations by Sunday News revealed that the inquiry
into the case by officials from various arms of the State have indicated that
the office could have been a haven of corrupt activities and might expose the
grave amount of rot and breach of national security that exists in the
Registrar-General’s Offices countrywide.
Sunday News has established that Government officials, last
year, upon receiving a tip-off from whistleblowers, instigated investigations
on how the staff at the Lupane Provincial Registry Office connived to give the
Pakistani a Zimbabwean National Identity Card and processed his passport
application.Sources privy to investigations alerted Sunday News that the
Pakistani received his ID card with the number being 41-116336T 41, but details
of his passport are yet to be established.
A series of investigations done by the Ministry of Home Affairs
and Cultural Heritage led to the sacking of the Provincial Processing officer,
Mr Reward Jani. Furthermore, Mr Jani was arrested for contravening section
174(1) (a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act (Chapter 9:23) for
criminal abuse of duty as a public officer.
He has since appeared at the Lupane Magistrate Court and
was remanded out of custody on a bail of $500. Mr Jani was to appear again at
the Lupane Provincial Magistrate court last week on Wednesday contesting his
dismissal but the hearing was deferred to 28 August owing to the Covid-19
lockdown.
The on-going Covid-19 travel restrictions put on hold the
continuation of the trial as respondents to the matter failed to travel to
Lupane. It is also understood that the hearing magistrate was to come from
Hwange. Following the expose, Mr William Sayenda, who was the acting Provincial
Registrar and Mr Jani’s supervisor at the time, was redeployed to the Umguza
registry office, a move seen as a demotion by close associates.
The Registrar-General’s Office had charged Mr Jani with
misconduct as provided in terms of section 44 (2) (a) of the Public Service
Regulations and also for improper, negligent, inefficient and incompetent
performance of duty.
According to the charge sheet initially compiled by the
Lupane Registry Office, that Sunday News is in possession of, it is said Mr
Jani admitted that he took instruction from his senior Mr Munashe Shoko to
issue a birth entry number LUP580/19 and further processed a national identity
document 41-116336T 41 belonging to Shollkat Saleem Sibanda.
“Your performance of duties was also not proper and
incompetent in that on 16 July 2019 you processed Shollkat Saleem Sibanda’s
national identity document without his fingerprints being cleared by the
National Fingerprint Bureau since he was over 21 years of age,” read the charge
report that only implicated Mr Jani.
Mr Jani was further charged for entering the falsified
information on the Zimbabwe Population Registry System (ZPRS) using a password
belonging to a colleague, Mr Zacharia Muleya who was on leave.
According to the Registry Office, Mr Jani had to
discontinue his duties as it was viewed that, him being at work, would
seriously impair proper administration or function of the department and
subsequently lead to loss of public confidence in the civil service.
But, what is likely to open a can of worms is that Mr Jani
is contesting losing his job, citing that he was improperly dismissed.
He argues why his other colleagues, who oversaw the
issuance of the documents to the Pakistani are still employed.
His lawyer, Mr Nqobani Sithole of Ncube Attorneys said they
would approach the Labour Court soon.
“We are definitely filing an application at the Labour Court,”
he told Sunday News on Friday last week.
In a week long fact finding mission, Sunday News spoke to
impeccable sources working at the office who revealed that there is more than
what meets the eye in the sacking of Mr Jani from office.
The controversial documents issued show that workers at the
Lupane registry made up a well coordinated job to help Mr Shollkat Saleem get
the documents. However, all those documents have since disappeared from the
registry as investigations intensified, it has been established.
“There are many people who were made to fork out bribes in
order to get IDs or passports. Some are afraid to speak out but that office in
Lupane is full of corrupt people,” said one of the workers who declined to be
identified.
Sunday News has it on good authority that informants within
the Lupane Registrar’s Office claimed senior staffers knew what was going on,
but seemed to let the matter be swept under the carpet.
“We wrote to the Ministry of Home Affairs and to the
Zimbabwe Anti Corruption Commission advising them about the activities that
also involved senior officials,” said one worker. Sunday News
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