The two said they had no reason to pay anyone anything as
they followed the required procedures.
Yesterday, Kasi through his lawyer Mr Everson Chatambudza,
while cross-examining the second witness Shorai Mupunga, a former employee at
the Council for Legal Education, produced paperwork showing how he acquired his
certificate.
Kasi said he applied in 2019 and in 2022 he received a
letter signed by the council’s chairperson Justice Slyvia Chirau that he had
been exempted from writing eight conversion examinations and directing him to
make a payment which he did on October 31, 2022.
This, according to Chatambudza, resulted in Kasi getting
the conversion certificate.
The witness, Mupunga concurred with the defence that this
shows a legitimate process.
She said she was not in a position to say that the two were
not exempted because she never sat in the council that deliberated on the
applications but based her allegation on the money she allegedly received and
gave to Huggins Duri, the suspended executive secretary of CLE to facilitate
the issuance of the certificates.
On her part, Kombo said she received the conversion
certificate from CLE, signed by Justice Chirau and had no knowledge whether it
was a product of the alleged fraud since she underwent all the procedures for
her to be issued with a legitimate conversion certificate.
Her lawyer Mr Admire Rubaya argued that it was not her
place to investigate such as she obtained her certificate from a reputable
institution.
Allegations are that they approached Mupunga, a CLE
official to assist her in registering and writing the conversion examinations.
Sometime last year, Mupunga approached Duri, who indicated
that he was able to facilitate the issuance of the conversion certificates,
without writing the conversion examinations, if the couple paid US$1 100.
The two allegedly paid the money through Mupunga, who
handed it to Duri, who then processed the certificates which certified that the
couple had written and passed eight conversion subjects.
Mupunga told the court in her conversation with Kombo,
there was never any talk about money or fraudulent acquisition of the
certificates but that she inquired of the process to write the examinations.
The trial will proceed on Monday for cross-examination of
the witness by Duri’s lawyer Mr Oliver Marwa who took over after the other
lawyers representing him had renounced agency. Herald
0 comments:
Post a Comment