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Court Reporter
TWO Zimbabwe Human Rights Organisation (ZimRights) officials who connived to manufacture fake voter registration certificates were on Tuesday ordered to perform 380 hours of community service while the other will pay US$1 000 fine.
Farai Bhani and Tatenda Chinaka were ordered to perform community service at Zengeza 8 Primary School while the organisation’s Highfield chapter chairperson Dorcas Shereni was ordered to pay the fine by tomorrow.
In the event that she fails to pay the fine she would go to jail for a year.
The trio had pleaded not guilty to charges of forgery and conspiracy to commit fraud or publishing false statements prejudicial to the State.
But Harare magistrate Mr Donald Ndirowei sentenced the trio due to overwhelming evidence linking them to the offence. The trio’s lawyers Mr Trust Maanda, Mr Tavengwa Masara and Mr Tonderai Bhatasara had argued that a prison sentence was too drastic for their clients in view of the circumstances surrounding the crime.
They argued that the three were first offenders and implored the court to spare them prison terms because they did not benefit from the crime.
It was also argued in mitigation that Bhani’s taxi business collapsed after incarceration, Chinaka was caring for his mother and sister who were terminally ill while Shereni had 75 percent disability.
Prosecutor Michael Reza had urged the court to imprison the three for at least five years because they were facing a serious offence.
He had told the court that their tampering with the voters’ roll had had a negative impact on the electoral process such as the validity of the July 31 elections. Mr Reza proved that Bhani registered himself as a voter at Dema Registrar General’s Office and acquired a certificate of registration as a voter.
He took the certificate together with reams of green flimsy papers to Chinaka where they scanned it and printed counterfeit copies.
They filled fake names on them and Shereni used them in ZimRights analyses. The ZimRights officials, it is alleged, later planned to use the information to criticise the set-up, records and functions of the Registrar General’s Office of Zimbabwe.
Online Reporter